Originally Posted by
portmanteau
ian w . your theory of little or no interest in an aircraft wandering around the skies might have some validity if the disinterested parties were unaware that an aircraft was missing. 370 was known to be missing at the time it should have contacted vietnam and it is inconceivable that the word did not reach all parts of se asia in a very short time. all surrounding atccs would be on alert for the aircraft on radio and radar. interest would be of a very high order I would say.
It would take sometime for the news to be shared with other civil units, sharing with the military would take longer if at all. Remember, the immediate thoughts were that the aircraft had dissappeared somewhere en-route to Vietnam at the extreme edge of Malaysian radar cover. Why contact internal military units to look for an aircraft that was assumed to be either en-route more than 200 miles away with some complex comms failure? After half an hour or so it was assumed that the aircraft was in the South China Sea again, why contact military? It was only when the news got out after seveal hours that the military said we think that one flew back overland out into the Malacca Straights. This was reported but then Iwould think the question was "are you absolutely sure?" - so while it was being checked the 'civilian loss of radar' contact was given as the time of last radar. Only when the military had time to pull the tapes and recheck did the time go back to 2:40 loss of primary radar over the Malacca Straights.
I see nothing suspicious in this although the management of information to the baying media could have been better handled.