You're using a broad brush stroke in order to describe a very specific event. Yes, there are lots of Muslim terrorist groups. There are also Christian terrorist groups. Just because there are far less doesn't mean they are any less culpable BASED ON THE INFORMATION WE HAVE.

Since we are all making wild accusations, why hasn't anyone blamed the Somali pirates for this? Or Hezbollah? What about Bengal Tigers of India? My point is, just because Islamic terrorists have used airlines against the US in the past for destruction doesn't mean that should be the automatic assumption from now on.

I'm not going to through and pick out how many posts there were where someone said, "the pilot had to take control," or "the pilot had to deactivate," or "the plane is for sure at the bottom of the ocean." I clicked on a random page and found post 398 which had a conclusion.

An educated guess requires information. There are so few facts that anything other than wild conjecture is impossible. An educated guess is "the plane's transponder stopped working and later a Malaysian military radar picked up an airplane flying west. I'm guessing that was MH370." I'd also accept, "the engines kept sending data for x hours after disappearing so the airplane most likely kept flying in a possibly westward direction for x hours."

I don't want to beat a dead horse re an intercept attempt, but if you think out of the box a bit, I believe it could have been ascertained whether or not the plane was being actively piloted. Why couldn't a fighter scare the crap out of someone flying the 777 just to make him move the stick a bit...you would know if it was on AP or not. I'm sure there would have been ways to know the condition of that aircraft.

Conclusion

Stated as conclusion

Opinion stated as a conclusion.

Stated as fact - therefore a conclusion.

Some people are careful about differentiating between 'educated guesses', opinions, and FACTS.
I only went back to posts from page 35....but I'd bet that there are a few more posts in the thread using the words 'facts' in them when referencing this current mystery when actually there are actually very few in this case. I think on this most would agree.

Let's take a guess that some of the users responding to your post about interception TTPs have actually performed intercepts on other airplanes and/or have flown in close formation with other aircraft (even large aircraft) and have a fair idea of what could have been accomplished?

OK...educate me USMCFLYER...why is it inconceivable to attempt a maneuver on an intercept that would force a reaction by a pilot in command of the 777...even at night?

Well, now we have heard from someone of authority....CNN dredged up Bill Savage as an expert commentator.

I don't understand what hypothetical world you're living in. Why is this relevant to the discussion?

USMCFlyer, don't feed the trolls.

It's relevant to earlier posts in the thread wherein I was questioning why an intercept was not attempted early on in the incident. I'm not talking about present day. NOTHING was known at that point and in my hypothetical world an intercept might have determined if the 777 was under AP or pilot control.