Latest AMSA release. Looks like they are trying to locate these latest objects tonight before last light (which is pretty much right now).
http://www.amsa.gov.au/media/documen...MH370FINAL.pdf
If the aircraft does turn up in this location, I think many (most) of us accept it can only have been a deliberate act. It is very hard to conceive of an accident where:
1. all the pax became incapacitated
2. there was no distress call of any sort
3. all comms were either disabled or switched off
4. the aircraft then turned back over Malaysia, then flew NW, and then turned south after flying far enough west to avoid Indonesia
5. and then flew for another 6 hours using the autopilot (which survived whatever it was which disabled lots of other systems)
The pax must have been incapacitated. GSM phones work just fine at altitude. I made a call from my iPhone at FL280 over remote Australia a few weeks back. Couldn't get out on the aircraft phone, but my iPhone worked just fine. In this day and age, 200 odd pax and crew are just not going to sit ad do nothing when they believe they are caught up in some act of presumed terrorism.
Hypoxia & hypothermia would be the only feasible way to quickly incapacitate a large number of people. The flight deck would have greater reserves of oxygen. The perpetrator may also have packed some warm clothing.
I wonder if anyone has looked at the computers of all those on board. Someone may have done some research on human physiology and altitude and hypoxia and hypothermia.