Thanks Ana. Even I can understand your clear illustrations and follow your clear explanation. You remind me of someone from AF447 days - she had similar expertise and we all benefitted from her insights.
How "narrow" would these lines of arc be? I understand could be very narrow as for GPS. But would communication satellites have that degree of accuracy with respect to timing?
If latest reports of low level flight are true, I guess this shortens the length if arcs somewhat. Has these been verified, or just rumor?
This was not an impulsive decision. Someone knew a lot about flying a T7, but a whole lot more as well. No way this was the response of someone who had a bad day.
If very low level flight is true, this further suggests pax out of equation by then. Anyone here think he/she wouldn't call when crossing land at low level?
Depressurisation and hypoxia still likely method. Eliminating all interference was crucial. How else could this be done. People don't come back after a sufficient period of hypoxia - anaesthetic data is clear on this point. Not at FL400 or close to. These people were not acclimatised like Everest climbers - even they wouldn't survive 40,000 (and plenty of them don't survive 30,000). 1 pilot on the deck have more oxygen than anyone else.
Few other questions
1. Engineer. Do we know if on duty or off duty? Could he have selected flight as pax, or was he assigned on duty.
2. Chinese satellite photos still puzzle me. Very embarrassing for them. They have the resources for higher res photos. Seems strange they did not given the delay of several days. Very strange they got caught out like that.
Last edited by slats11; 17th Mar 2014 at 08:40.
Reason: Typo