Where is Flight 370?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GC_mV1IpjWA

I once read a mystery novel  by Tony Kenrick (published circa 1972) titled “A Tough One to Lose” in which a 747 jet with over 300 passengers aboard departs from Los Angeles International Airport and vanishes from radar screens over Lake Tahoe.  A couple of hours later, the authorities receive an anonymous package containing some personal effects from some of the first-class passengers (as I recall, things like a wallet and an engraved watch) along with a note demanding a $25,000,000 ransom in uncut diamonds for the return of the plane and the passengers.  The mystery is solved by the unlikely protagonists of the novel: a down-on-his-luck LA lawyer (who gets pulled into the case because one of his clients happens to be one of the missing passengers) and his secretary (who also happens to be the lawyer’s ex-wife).  We eventually discover that the crime was committed by a team of crooks which included such people as a computer programmer, a bookmaker and some airport personnel.  It turns out that all the economy-class passengers on the flight were part of the caper: deadbeat customers of the bookie who gave them airline tickets and told them he’d forgive their debts if they took the flight, did as they were told and kept their mouths shut.  The only real passengers were the ones in first class: they were taken off the plane and locked into an airport boiler room before the plane even took off.  When the flight was hijacked over Lake Tahoe (I forget the details on how this was done), it flew down to an altitude below radar level, then changed its transponder code to the identification number of a completely different (and fictitious) flight inbound for LAX, which the programmer had created in LAX’s computer systems so that the flight would not attract attention as it arrived.  The aircraft landed, its fake passengers were de-planed, and the 747 was then taken to a hangar by unsuspecting airport servicing crews for what the maintenance schedule (rejiggered by the computer programmer) listed as a scheduled overhaul of its engines (or some such lengthy procedure that would keep the aircraft out of public view for a couple of weeks).

To be correct IN the sea, not under it. That would be silly.

Aliens.

Right . this thread is turning into jokes. Flight 370 is a tragic event.

I’m guessing a hijacking that did not succeed.  Search parties haven’t been looking in the right area - sounds like they need to be scour the Indian Ocean.

People can’t keep secrets.  If it was successfully hijacked, someone would own up to it and demand a ransom.  If it arrived where it needed to be, one of the passengers would step up.  It’s gone, and not where they’ve been looking, hence it hasn’t been found yet.

Illegal aliens are no laughing matter.

@Imperious:

Right . this thread is turning into jokes. Flight 370 is a tragic event.

Unlike WWII, which was a laugh riot.

How much longer will this mysterious disappeared plane remain lost?
Weeks? Months? Years?

@ABWorsham:

How much longer will this mysterious disappeared plane remain lost?
Weeks? Months? Years?

A B-24 called Lady Be Good vanished without a trace in 1943 and wasn’t found until 1958.

I heard reports last night that there may be some debris near Australia

@Gargantua:

I heard reports last night that there may be some debris near Australia

Should hear more about that anytime now, but that is ridiculously off course.  I doubt that is it, but if it is, it raises even more questions.  We’re talking hundreds of miles WSW of Australia…pretty much the opposite direction of the intended flight and only Antarctica conceivably en route (I suppose South S. America would be possible, but not very likely).

@ABWorsham:

How much longer will this mysterious disappeared plane remain lost?
Weeks? Months? Years?

It took almost seventy-five years to find the Titanic and there were three guesstimates for the location from the lost ship and other vessels in the area.

They’re still not certain they’ve found Amelia Earhart.

If that aircraft went down over the ocean it could be decades quite easily.

There was a request to have this topic removed. Any objections?

None.  That’s not an unreasonable request.

I’m still holding out hope that the world is going to miraculously find those people alive. At least some of them?

We haven’t solved the mystery.  If there’s still .0001% of a chance. I’m hoping for good dice.