The ATSB fact sheet along with some other recently discovered information has given me a clearer picture of the route taken by MH370 just after the turnaround.
The Thais' have said that they tracked (MH370) but that they didn't track it in Thai airspace, so in my earlier plots I had the flight skirting the Thai border; but when I tried to plot estimated groundspeed, the timing got a little tight. The plane would have had to maintain a cruse FL in order to have reached the vicinity of MEKAR at 18:22 UTC.
The ATSB plot shows the flight over Thai airspace, that more direct route west would fit other known facts better but is this a contradiction of the statement by the government of Thailand? Not at all, they did say that their track of the target was intermittent - so the ATSB plot is correct, they just didn't see the flight when it was over their territory.
The location of the Thai radar antenna that tracked MH370 is located at 6°50'38.02"N 100°25'11.64"E (you can see the antenna in Google Earth.) The slice of territory MH370 flew over in Thai airspace is blanketed by the high ground around Ban Panang Bo Ngo (a ridgeline at least 250 meters high at and near 6° 7'0.44"N 101°48'1.29"E.)
The person flying the plane knew about this "dead spot" in Thai radar coverage and crossed Thai airspace at much reduced altitude from cruise. This has been indicated in both early Malaysian radar reports as well as by the civilian sightings of the aircraft near Kota Bharu.
IMO this solidifies one part of a reconstructed flight path for MH370.
Last edited by Propduffer; 26th May 2014 at 23:45.
Reason: oldoberon spells better than me