@Wader2
Thanks for the cite, I had missed part of the earlier post by recanted (#9648). The information at the link he posted tells us that the Indonesians are apparently also revising their earlier releases, but not much else.
In #9648, recanted was making the argument that the flight had flown straight south from IGARI, I believe that to be a previously discounted theory so I didn't open his link or give his post much attention.
Here are the reasons why I reject the "straight south" scenario:
I think there is some confusion about what is meant by a 180 degree turn, which leads back to the old discussion about whether MH370 made a left turn or a right turn at IGARI. The confusion comes from the concidence that the area where the current search is focused (therefore the terminus of the flight) lies very close to the intersection of a heading of 180 degrees from IGARI, and the fact that the flight did make a 180 degree turn from its normal flight path (whether it turned right or left is irrelevant.) The turn from its normal flight path took it over Koto Bharu on a heading of approximately 238 degrees. The aircraft was sighted passing over Koto Bharu and this flight path is in agreement with all previously released information as well as fuel burn calculations.
The 180 degree turn proposed by recanted would have taken it over a large portion of Indonesian airspace and would have put it on a course in the direction of Jakarta (the 180 degree south flight path would have passed within 200nm of Jakarta) and is certain to have not gone unnoticed by the Indonesians.
Once again the focus of the earlier portion of the flight raises the question of "how far north of NILAM did 370 venture before turning south."
The Indonesian "clarification" in the Star interview places the Indonesians as saying that they never had a radar sighting of MH370 at all. This does nothing to discount a northern excursion of MH370 which would have kept it out of Indonesian radar coverage.
Last edited by Propduffer; 10th Apr 2014 at 20:19.