[alancarp]

Correct me if I'm wrong but a Maldives location seems to be totally inconsistent with the published contour based on the Last Satellite Ping received from the aircraft.

There's the rub: would they even have had enough fuel to start in the right direction, loop back, fly at low altitude (using much more fuel), and THEN get to the Maldives. Not likely.

Max range of a 777-200 is 5,240 nautical miles... with full fuel.

[Rockpile]

Max range at max payload for a 777-200 ER is 7725 nautical miles.
They weren’t at max payload.

[Rockpile]

On April 2, 1997 a Malaysia Airlines 777 ER flew from Seattle to Kuala Lumpur on the longer great circle route eastwards10,823 NMs non-stop in 21 hrs 23 mins. and set a then world record.

I would love to know if Capt. Shah was one of the crew on that trip.