That has always been a possibility. I hope so and that the passengers are safe. In a way this would be the best outcome.
I am still going with space based laser test.
I certainly hope so. But we're talking muzzies here.
Obama, as usual, doesn’t know whether to $hit or go blind on this incident either; therefore, he covers it up and gives out no info. Perhaps he’ll blame it on a video when the plane is in the air again headed for Israel loaded with 227 human shields, including several children.
If the plane has been on the ground in Pakistan (or anywhere else) for two weeks, and the passengers have been held against their will, I don’t see how they could possibly be “safe.”
Yep. Enjoying a cell-phone-free vacation at the Taliban Hilton after a safe ELT-silent landing at Jihad International?
What's the motive? What's next?
“I hope so and that the passengers are safe. In a way this would be the best outcome.”
Huh? If it’s there the passengers are likely dead or in prison, and the plane will get packed with WMD and sent over here!
This would require a LOT of high-level complicity on the part of a number of different agencies.
Now, so far as getting to Pakistan, the ocean route in over the Arabian Sea after skirting south of India is at the very limits of possibility. So far as the passengers may have been concerned, they are simply collateral damage, and very likely, the steep climb to 45,000 feet, well above the operational ceiling of the airplane, may have resulted in a mass asphyxiation of the passengers and most of the crew. The pilot, or pilots, would have had on supplementary oxygen, and been unaffected, or much less affected, which may explain the serious flight pattern deviations before the aircraft disappeared from observation altogether.
First, the Malaysian air defense tracking system HAD to know, as after the turn to the southwest heading, it would have re-crossed Malaysian air space. Why was an unidentifiable aircraft allowed to continue if not with prior advice of its presence made known to the pilots who would have responded?
Then, once out over the open ocean, did the plane have sufficient fuel to skirt south of India, or was there also elements within the India defense perimeter who would turn a blind eye? This seems highly unlikely, considering the extended belligerence between Pakistan and India. So the plane may have been carrying a more than normal fuel load when it departed Kuala Lumpur, something that would have to have had very high level of complicity. Airliners carry very little more fuel than they absolutely need to complete a specific leg of a flight, unless there are a number of intermediary stops.
Meanwhile, the Pakistanis would have gained access to a most excellent weapons delivery system, all with a highly sophisticated control mechanism - a human pilot motivated to perform a suicide mission.
There is no good outcome in all this.
If true, what happens to the passengers? If they’re set free, then Pak lets every one they have the plane. Would they be held captive and for how long? Are they released after the plane has served its purpose? I don’t see how it turns out well for the passengers.