Originally Posted by
arearadar
Albatross and Dave Reid,
Unless I misunderstand, both primary and secondary radar contact was lost.
If true, how was 370 tracked and by whom ?
Never re-identified in an ATC sense.
My understanding was that the transponder stopped but that the primary contact was still being recorded. Not that anyone would be interested as you know many if not most controllers will have primary switched off and base all their work on SSR/ADS. We are not told but have to assume that a primary target was also correlated with the SSR by the air defense agencies. That primary correlation would survive the transponder stopping and remain attached to the primary track.
All this is why the first search was in the South China Sea, then the 'tapes were pulled' and the primary track was then visible. So no the aircraft was not re-identified in an 'air traffic sense' as it was only being followed from the tapes. Since then the Malaysian and Thai military have also said that their systems tracked the aircraft. They are all keeping shtum about their actual capabilities and what they have actually passed to the investigation. But it must be believable or the search in the South China sea would still be going on.