The information from Thai authorities that the Malaysian airliner crossed back over the Malaysian peninsula, but didn't cross Thai territory, suggests the plane nearly double backed instead of headed straight west. Whoever was in control wanted to minimize any contact with any authorities, limiting them to Malaysian air space and Malaysian authorities, probably because they were most familiar with Malaysian methods and reactions. To escape detection, they could have instead flown straight south, but eventually they would have encountered Java and other heavily-populated, well-guarded Indonesian territories. They could have flown northeast over the South China Sea, but eventually you run into militarily-sensitive places over there too. The Thais say the last they saw of the aircraft was turning right, northward, in the general direction of Butterworth, which means they were trying to reach the solace of the Andaman Sea. They apparently didn't try to cross Sumatra.
So then what? The strange aircraft report from the Maldives later that morning doesn't square with the last-known satellite arcs, so it probably was another aircraft involved with that. Maybe. They could have made it to the airstrip on the Cocos Islands, but that's increasingly militarized these days, and people would have noticed. Ile Amsterdam is way, way out there, but there's no airstrip there. It's seasonally inhabited, so maybe there are people there, and maybe not, but it's hardly a garden spot.
But why all alone at night over the Indian Ocean? Where were they going? What was the plan?
We may never know.
But if you have temporary omnipotence over a motley throng of people, 2/3 of whom are Chinese, what would human nature suggest? Not a direct suicide, but enslavement, calculated murder, or trade.
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