McInerney’s record is to speak the truth regardless of the pressure to shut up.
No floating debris will be found because there is no ocean debris.
The simplest explanation is usually the best answer. Even if no extra fuel, the plane could easily make it to Pakistan. Refuel and be off to Iran. The pilot had been self training to fly low and land at unknown airfields.
The passengers? During the flight they dropped cabin pressure knocking them out and freezing them.
It looks to me like the pilot could have flown over the open sea and free from radar surveillance if the goal was to get to Iran or Pakistan.
Look at the map in my previous post (#21) and you will see what I mean. If the satellite data is correct that plane either flew South over the open ocean or North over India. I'm betting it went South.
But the incontrovertible Arc of the Last Ping at Post #21 shows that the plane’s final moments at 8:11 were a long way from Pakistan.
Is he not a believer in the Arc of the Ping.
Also worth remembering that McInerney’s theory isn’t based solely on his own conjecture. He’s been talking to contacts at Boeing, the intelligence community and aviation circles, and there are a number of experts who agree with him.
One potentially conclusive piece of evidence that may are overlooking. If the plane landed in Pakistan, (or anywhere else), it is almost certain the pilot used his radar altimeter. That’s an emitter, and there is a chance the signal might have been detected by an ELINT satellite or other collection platform. The downside of this possibility is that signals from the radar altimeter are transmitted downward, so the aircraft body and terrain would tend to shield the transmission, making it more difficult to detect.
Additionally, all 777s have the same radar altimeter, so you could have the same signal from multiple sources at the same time in a country the size of Pakistan. The key, of course (assuming the signal was detected) is location. Doubtful a hijacked 777 would fly to a major commercial airport; on the other hand, there are several Pak military fields that can accommodate wide-body jets. Detection of a 777 radar altimeter and/or weather radar around one of those locations, about the time the plane would have landed in Pakistan, would be an important clue.
General McInerney is being very deliberate in his remarks about the plane and where it might be. I’m guessing that someone has given him information based on “better” ELINT reporting about the aircraft.
My own guess is the disappearance was a case of suicide by pilot, and the plane is somewhere in the Indian Ocean. But I may be wrong and General McInerney could be proven correct.
One point he did raise on Hannity last night: if the plane turned south, it would have passed through the air defense intercept zones of both Indonesia and Singapore. As he observed, the Singapore AF is the second-best in the region (behind the RAAF) and some of my former USAF colleagues (who have trained the guys from Singapore) will tell you that many of their pilots are better than the Aussies.
Bottom line: it’s an exceptionally professional organization, extremely well-trained and equipped. Singapore would not allow a large, non-squawking track to pass through their airspace without being challenged (or intercepted). To my knowledge, no one has inquired about what Singapore detected that night and how they responded.