Think the’r area is WAY too small. They are assuming the range was limited to how far Beijing was. The range actually would extend over to Somalia and into Iraq/Iran...
Ping.
If they stayed at altitude - but they didn't.
Technically yes. But were they carrying enough fuel to go that far? That is the question.
Plus I pretty sure that their satellite pinging system stopped in much shorter time than it would take to get as far as Somalia. That most likely means they crashed when over land or water or landed at some remote landing strip. Perhaps one prepared just for this mission.
Maybe this aircraft was carrying a few hundred million in gold. Or uranium.
Airliners take off with sufficient fuel to reach the destination plus a reserve for diversions. Somebody wrote that there is extra reserve at night. But they aren’t fueled to max if the destination isn’t at max aircraft range. So the radius probably doesn’t include Somalia.
They took off for a 6 hour flight, but two hours later, were only 50 miles from their departure point. How much fuel should they have on board? The reports said 7 hours. So they used 2 leaving them five. Best cruise @ 500kts gives a range of 2875 statute miles.
3800 miles to Somalia
3100 miles to Chabahar Iran
3988 to Basra