What stands out is where they are reporting they "lost radar contact" with them -- "near IGARI waypoint."

Of course they lost contact with them there, they "lose" contact with everyone there! That's the boundary between Singapore and Ho Chi Minh control. Singapore uses ADS-B and Ho Chi Minh procedural control, so it would be normal for Singapore to drop the track at the boundary.

I can just see some higher up asking "where did we last have radar contact with them?" and the controller says "well, right here past IGARI, but it's more complicated than that, we drop the track and they report..." and the higher up passes up the info 7 layers to the General who only hears "right here past IGARI."

The real question is did they check in with Ho Chi Minh? Did they report over BITOD? BIBAN? Why are Malaysian officials getting all the attention when the flight really disappeared in Vietnam's airspace? I can imagine some controller is saying wait, you're searching in the wrong place, he reported passing BIBAN... and being told to shut up, the military is handling this.

And that thing about spotting them west of Malaysia going westbound. I can likewise see some higher-up asking if "you tracked any aircraft around that time" and the controller says "yea, we were tracking an aircraft then but it had a transponder. We'll have to check the tapes if there were any primary targets..." and that gets passed up the 7 layers of military to the PR person who passes it to 3 layers of journalists, none of whom knows what transponders or primary targets are, until it becomes "yes, we tracked the flight."

I hope someone is asking Ho Chi Minh the right questions, because I haven't seen anything reported about them yet. That would narrow down where to search a lot better, I think.

After looking through the technical drawings of the 777, a fire in the avionics bay would cause this exact scenario. All the equipment that failed is located there, also it looks like a fire there would not cause the airplane to suddenly fall out of the sky, and it could possibly fly several hundred miles. Really this plane could have crashed anywhere around that part of the world.

It's interesting how in 1940s Germany there was ever growing propoganda that lead up to the hating of a particular people because of their religion or ethnicity. Burning of the Riechstag was one of the tipping points that justified his evil actions toward his victims while making it popular with the masses of Germany's citizenry to hate that group of people. Is history repeating itself?

Why didn't I think of that ?, the nazis took the airplane.

It's 0535 in Asia (can't sleep) and CNN is saying China has satellite images of large objects which may be parts of the plane. The moron Richard Quest is babbling on about how he thinks this is it. Patrick Smith was a bit more cautious.

The location of these Chinese satellite images matches the location described by the oil rig worker.

To me, that seems to give both facts a little more credibility?

Especially from folks that have no/to little international experience.
(Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean don't count as international either.)
And have no 777 experience.

Well...they did bomb Pearl Harbor, so I wouldn't put it past them!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7vtWB4owdE

You know they still have that secret base in the PI.

My guess as well!

Not quite -- the two positions are about 100 miles apart, and both about 100 miles east of the route of flight.

I saw that too. Quest is CNN's international business reporter. They asked him what his "thoughts" were on those objects (who better to ask), and he waved a paper while literally shouting it's EXACTLY along the route of flight. They then show a lat/long that's 60-100 miles off, a 90 degree right turn after their last radar position. Now, I'm no business reporter, but in my feeble controller opinion I'd say 60-100 miles isn't quite "exactly."