[gaijin]

If they were simply suicidal, or the pilots were angry against their employer, then their target would have been THIS:

But they didn't do that --they turned off the transponders and few out to sea.

So it sorta seems like they viewed the a/c as valuable and wanted to use it for some PURPOSE.

No one has reported being attacked by a huge airliner, so they were trying to fly to a place where they had friends of some kind.

If they simply wanted to kill everyone on board, why fly FOUR HOURS out to sea...?

[gaijin]

The perp is a Non-State Actor with forces within 3,600 miles of Kuala Lumpu and controls a landing strip sufficiently long to accommodate a Boeing 777.

And they have facilities for 239 hostages or the will to kill them.

[Smokin' Joe]

So it sorta seems like they viewed the a/c as valuable

...or the contents, for whatever reason.

[Red in Blue PA]

Spot on post. If they wanted to crash it into something and make a statement, they passed up the statement of a lifetime. Therefore, IMO it almost surely is on a runway strip somewhere in Pakistan or Iran.