Originally Posted by
phiggsbroadband
If we suppose that at the instant the FR24 return gives a 0ft reading that some structural damage has been done, what are the pilot's likely reaction?
Surely if the plane is still flying, a descent to below 10,000ft is done.
Then a turn towards the nearest possible landing area or airport.
So which way would he have gone? Draw a line from the FR24 0ft location and search along that line, would seem to be the most likely to find where he went.
Your original supposition is flawed. There are several reasons for the last couple off ADS-B alt readouts to be zero, but it's generally from some form of packet loss. This includes switching the txdr off..