[milagro]

If the oil slicks are from the engines, it seems the distance between them indicates the possibility that they were separated from the plane BEFORE it went into the water.

But that's just my idea, based on pure speculation.

[longfellowsmuse]

A marine biologist on airliners.net is suggesting that the “oil slicks” might not be fuel at all but a cyanobacterium common in the gulf of Thailand this time of year. If so, still no plane...

[fiftymegaton]

That would seem to make sense.

IF(and I’m not entirely confident in the Vietnamese officials that we are all seemingly relying on for info) it turns out to be accurate information that the oil/fuel slicks are 6-10 miles long and parallel roughly 500 meters apart, that would seem to suggest the airplane was losing fuel/oil while still in the air.

What that ultimately means I don’t know. There’s still so many possibilities.