Finally - BBC reporting that Chinese officials have released satellite photos of what they claim are large floating objects in the South China Sea - east of last known position.
I must say the photos look fairly promising, albeit not good news.

Not sure if already discussed but did they have CPDLC capability and were they logged on?

bille1319
 

Early posts indicate this part of the world is watched by the satellites constantly.

do civil airliners not have a big red do not flick depress switch that does the packs off outflow valve stuff for you? my type has one on the centre console next to auto/semi/man selections and is one of the biggies not to miss on preflight checks.

There is no CPDLC with Lumpur and HCM.

Barrel_owl ... The likelihood of China revealing its overhead imagery capability online is minimal.

Please consult Google Earth instead. :p

43,100 is the certified maximum altitude, but it could fly higher. There would not be structural failure. It would simply stop climbing at the limit of its performance for the power and weight. There is also a possibility of the wing stalling or aerodynamic buffet due to the speed of the air flowing over the wings.

You can read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffin_corner_(aviation)

Radar contact would not be lost at high altitude.

The autopilot would not be able to maintain the desired flight path and would then automatically disconnect. At that point the aircraft would be uncontrolled and would eventually crash.

BarrelOwl
At 16.55, KAL672 previously heading 054, turns to an apparent heading of 234 for a full 10 mins (until 17.05). It then Reverts to a heading of 041 before racing across the page (presumably in some sort of data catch-up). At all points in between, the data reports its heading as 234, which, if FA24 is to be believed, is data coming from the ADS-B transponder, itself reflecting the GPS coordinates of the aircraft.

CCA970 "appears" to do something similar for approx 2 mins at 17.01

Presumably this is corrupt/misinterpreted data, but perhaps goes to show just how (in)accurate FR24 is. Perhaps something else is going on - your guess is as good as mine, what that might be.

the sat recon birds which were alluded to are typically on very high apogees, and may (or may not) work in the visible spectrum.

geostationary is pointless for a recon sat (unless its a weather bird) as you can only take a picture of a limited area. so unless you want to look at a particular area constantly for a long time, most of the sorts,of assets that would be useful would be non geostationary.

Memories seem to be very short, hull losses over ocean are very rare and in two of the most recent it was some time before wreckage was found. It is also worth remembering that it took 22 months to locate AF447 on the ocean floor, despite the location being very close to its last known position.

What is the B777-200ER`s endurance/range at 10,000 feet, at say 75% MTOW.

Vin Rouge
 

You may be correct, but a couple of thousand posts ago, so very knowledgeable posters were very sure the area was watched 24/7, especially watching for flashes (missiles), etc., etc.

There have been no other sea, ground, or air witnesses to any type of explosion or fireball.

Chronus
 

Early posts indicated they would burn 50% more at 10K.

That would have given MH370 a 3 to 4 hour range at that altitude at a TAS of about 340Kts.

Vin Rouge
 

As I recall form when this first started, the ocean is about 30 to 100M deep.

Retrieval would be possible

IF you had excellent radar coverage, or satellite images of a neighbours territory, but didn't want to reveal that, maybe using a shaman to reveal the location of the wreckage would be one way of doing it.

Hi,

This is normal
The zone near the last know position was the first zone investigated but with no good search devices ..
Two years later they find it because the US investigation company used good devices ....

It's time to summarize again.

* All transponders were lost or shut down in the middle of Gulf of Thailand, at N6.92 E103.58, at 1:20 local time.

* No debris related to the plane were found anywhere near the spot.

* Shortly thereafter (~1:45), multiple witnesses saw a large plane flying at low altitude above Kota Bharu, 90 NM southwest of last known location.

* Shortly after that (~2:15), Malaysian air force reports tracking an unidentified radar target at FL295 in Malacca Strait off the coast of Phuket, 320 NM west-northwest of last known location.

* We know about a report by a Kiwi rig worker who saw a burning plane. He is unsure about the range, but his observation puts the plane roughly at N8.3 E107.5, or 250 NM east-northeast of last known location.

* Chinese satellites picked up large floating objects at N6.7 E105.63, or 120 NM east-southeast of last known location.

Eye witness on rig
 

Having read the Mike McKay eye witness email it appears to fit with the scant info we know. He would not at the time be able to see the a/c (night) or have known its flight path. Seeing a cruise altitude flame trail would I think be possible given dark, clear skies and if he had his night vision.
A 10-15 second time frame makes it sound like a single catastrophic failure took the a/c down which would agree with the total lack of comms. This is probably the best (only?) available evidence so hopefully they will trawl/sonar the reported area.
Given that his identity has been released it is unlikely to be a hoax.

I hope the latest news leads to finding the aircraft. Honestly, as scattered as the search has been so far, they are about as likely to find Amelia Earhart as the 777. :{