mobile phone (NOT Inmarsat) 'pings'
I've been thinking....
We all know that on every flight there is a certain number of phones that don't get switched off or put into 'flight mode'.
Now, these phones would try to lock on to a ground-based station during the flight. We've had this discussion here before and know it's perfectly feasible from 30+k feet.
IF the aircraft really headed out into the Indian Ocean, then it must have overflown Malaysia and Indonesia. Does anyone know if the Telcos in these two countries checked their logs for the night in question? If (and again, a big IF) any of the phones on board had tried to lock on to one or more of the cells in either country, then we would at least have proof of two things:
1) MH370 really did fly southwest
2) the time of passing overhead these points
Btw, same goes for the - now largely discounted - northern route.