Originally Posted by
wild goose
Persistent reports in the media as well as posters here refer to a descent to 5000' to "avoid radar".
1) at 5000 ft you are still very visible to radar
2) with no Transponder (and no primary returns) how do they know the a/c was at 5000 ft?
3) if the aircraft was tracked doing this over "two or three countries" then what countries were they? What was the flight path?
Sorry, doesn't make sense.
Also, journalists, why aren't you asking about the pings?
The last ping was on the 40 deg arc. On what arcs were the other pings?
The Malaysians are just not being forthcoming about everything they know, they are worthy of hearty condemnation on this.
If you are behind a hill you may disappear and experienced controllers and military used to their radars will be able to say how low the aircraft would need to go to 'hide' behind the hills. Solid track suddenly disappears into radar shadow - you know you can see things to just over 5000' but less than that they disappear - assumption it was at 5000' or below. Controllers also have to know the bottom of their radar cover due to range - so a track disappearing as it flies away can give a good indication that it flew out of the bottom of the radar lobe. It is a simple task to calculate the bottom of the lobe at that range. Talk to another radar unit in another country and they had solid returns where it disappeared for you, QED
The flight path has been reported into the Malacca straights that is why the search suddenly switched there when the military confirmed their primary tracking. Thailand has also now belatedly confirmed the same track.
It does add up.