So do I get this right? The aircraft last communicated with the tower 11 minutes after departure, thereafter nothing. And a few hours later, an ELT signal is received somewhere in Soutwestern Cameroon?
Obviously, if an ELT goes off when an airplane is missing, you'd look there first. Only, ELT's do go off all the time, 90% or more of alerts are false alerts. I wonder if they are looking in the right place, after all, the location is far off. Or do the airliners ELT's send out an identification? The ones I know basically transmit only a homing signal on 121.5 and 400 mhz for the satellites.
Kind of reminds me of the search efforts in Indonesia not too long ago, where such signals were also reported totally in the wrong place.
Best regards
AN2 Driver