The fact that the transponder is instantaneously reporting zero while the a/c is 7 miles high in the sky is a key piece of information. The lack of radio reports while the transponder is still working would indicate an in-cabin event which precluded a radio report. Then over a three minute period the transponder ceases reports all together.
It looks like this geographical area is where transponder updates become sketchy as some historic tracks lose data up to a point just short of reaching the Vietnam coast.
All of this points to a rapidly deteriorating electrical system in the aircraft.
The oil rig observation is interesting. The observer is over 300 nm away but it is a dark, cloudless night. His observation of a burning plane would be down near the horizon. But his comment that, from his vantage point, he could percieve no lateral motion lends credibility to his report as we know the plane had just turned more in his direction, head on along with the indication that the event took place much further away than it appears.
If one of those US destroyers in the area is ASW equipped they should run their towed array sonar along 060 to 075 from LKP. The idea it was still in the air for 4 hrs lacks any published data... same as the "military radar" theory.
I think CaptainJim makes a few very good points here. Indeed the B777 flying for 5hrs lacks data, and they have been agreeing and denying this over the past few days. Looks very suspicious to me, not to say the least that a lot of information is not being released to the public.
I would love to see more published data that they obtained.
However, what about the predicted flight path put together by the US military published earlier that suggests the missing plane was heading towards Andaman Islands?