Did anyone notice on the flight radar 24 track from the same flight number last night, the tracking signal seems disappear around about 40minutes into flight, then comes back on 21 minutes late at the tip of Vietnam. Same thing on the 1st March as well.
The tracking always seems to stop on these occasions as the aircraft turns from 25 degrees to 38 degrees. On other days the signal is apparent the whole way across to Vietnam. (weather/atmospheric conditions perhaps cause the loss of sign on some days??)
Anyway, that gives a rough distance of ~220km and a fairly short flying time between A and B for the search teams assuming it kept the same heading.
If last signal ATC contact was potentially around 1.30am (10mins after it goes off the flight radar screen) Then plane would have been perhaps only ~110km off of the Vietnam coast at that point.
Doesn't seem like that big an area to search if using grids with multiple S&R aircraft and it is near impossible for something to drop out of the sky without noticeable debris being scatter around if there was an explosion.
The search and rescue seems very badly organised from what i've seen and compared to the s&r of other aircraft lost at sea in recent years (Helicopters, North Sea).