Foxy,
my guess is they're all very much alive because dead they wouldn't have any bargaining value. This is going to be a big one I think, be interesting to hear what excuses the pro-immigration crowd will come up with.

Dear Indy,

I certainly hope that you're right about the
passengers still being alive. It must be a
dreadful time for their families.

Foxy I'm undecided if I want to wish that on them. I guess there is the hope that they maybe rescued. I'm assuming a that there are a relatively limited number of places one could both land and then hide a 777 which are not under Chinese or US control and I also assume both nations will be have the means to narrow the list down pretty quickly.

The fact that so many of the passengers are Chinese nationals becomes in itself a strategic nightmare for the US if they need to defend themselves against it with the possibility of passengers (hostages) on board.

R0bert

The case for any sound hypothesis is not the case “for” it, it is the case against it. If the case has merit based on currently available information, then it is up to the case against it to prove it wrong. Based on my own analysis and the comments so far, it is looking difficult to dismantle this hypothesis.

@Foxy, the sad part of my speculation is that if I’m right that the passengers were not the target and it was the aircraft they were after, then the passengers are no longer a negotiable item and are expendable. God I hope I’m wrong. As we saw with one of the 9/11 aircraft, the passengers reacted to defend the target and it cost them their lives.

If the intention was to take the aircraft on for another 6 hours then the passengers would have to be “pacified”. We understand that calls to passengers’ mobiles went unanswered? Remember that 70% of passengers were Chinese, apart from possibly of outer Mongolian separatists, there seems little motivation to take on China. I doubt this was an act against China.

@ Phillip S and R0bert. Good points. The chances of taking control of a commercial airliner in the western world have been greatly diminished since 9/11, security upgrades have reduced this risk, but not the motivation. A developing nation with lower security capacity would be a much more attractive target. The latest revelations that one of the flight deck crew was a political activist strengthens my case. They definitely needed a compliant pilot.

S.E. Asia, Thailand in particular have a well developed market for stolen passports. In addition, Malaysian authorities have reportedly been lax in both border security (not checking passports against stolen database) and flight deck security, invitations to flight deck guests. Most other airlines now have “no entry” policies and secure flight deck access.

So if you wanted to take an aircraft you would pick an airline that gave you the “opportunity” through lax security, a pilot would have known this.

If we are right, the culprits will admit to nothing, yet

Dear RObert and Spindoc,

You've both raised some very valid points.
I find the whole thing quite frightening,
and yet still hope for the best.

Hey Foxy, where have you been, I missed you, & was starting to worry.

The ones I feel most for are the those waiting to find the fate of their loved ones. It must be worse than dreadful.

If it is to be a new terror weapon, god help us. It really is time to start defending ourselves against the ratbags in this world, & their supporters.