Military Radar Q
At the point the transponder ceased to respond the plane was approaching the coast of Vietnam and would be on Vietnamese military primary radar, no? IF the plane did turn west and transited the Malay peninsula (and the possibility it did so was considered sufficient to deploy SAR assets to the Malacca Strait) it would have been picked up by Thai military primary radar and Indonesian also -so why have none of these countries said anything? Awhile back someone did post that at FL295 it would not be picked up by military radar but it was picked up (maybe) by Malaysian military radar. Being a Commair it would have been of none the interest to the Vietnam operator as it approached the coast, however a turn off of filed flight path would -if it happened. Perhaps it did not turn west?
Another Q: If SAR assets were committed to the Malacca Strait why were not recon flights made over the largely uninhabited jungles of Sumatra to the west. A couple of days back Onetrack posted a plausible scenario that had the plane crashing into that area.
Unrelated but to the RR engine data bit -my understanding is protocol in this situation is to turn over anything they know to the investigating entity and it is the investigating entity's call as to release or not release (or authorize RR to release)