I don’t mean to spoil your fun .. but I’m still leaning toward General McInerney’s explanation that the plane is in Pakistan or Iran. And .. we do have that mysterious phone call the pilot received just before takeoff. Did he receive final instructions on where to land the plane? ... or perhaps some special code to transmit to the country where they were going, to keep from being shot down.
2 reasons: (1) the General was consistently right about what was going on in Iraq during the war. I looked forward to his reports .. because the other Generals all got it wrong. (2) I saw a recent report that Pakistan and Iran are planning a “war game”. I Forgot to write down the date .. but the moment I read the article .. my first thought was .. what if the plane suddenly appears (painted differently - of course) and used to target a city somewhere? Or, will the plane contain the passengers and be blown up in front of the world ..?? Of course, you have to factor in retaliation by China.
We must never forget the govt’s of Iran and Pakistan are EVIL.
It may seem far fetched .. but always remember that one of the conclusions of the 911 Commission was, “the lack of imagination”.
Ditto. And after landing in Pakistan, they ripped out the black box and, using another plane, dumped it in a deep and remote part of the Indian Ocean to throw off searchers.
I'm going with same paint job, different tail number, on the same route to China the carrier normally runs, last minute diversion to the Three Gorges Dam. A super sized M180 cratering charge - BIG shaped charge in the nose, bigger charge in the tail to get crammed into the the hole the shaped charge makes, and no more dam.
All for the muslim Uyghurs, of course...