That’s true, although military aircraft like the B-52 have specific equipment that enables them to fly so low like FLIR, NGV and terrain following radar, which are absent on airliners. Besides, the aircraft was flying at night, it would take one heck of a pilot to attempt nap of the earth flight without those aids.

Also low level flying is very hard on airframes, military aircraft are designed to cope with the stresses generated in ways that commercial aircraft aren’t. It’s just possible that if MH370 tried this it could have suffered a fatigue failure resulting in a crash.

I was wondering about that myself, would the aircraft have enough fuel to get to Somalia? Besides, if it was a case of Somali piracy, wouldn’t they have demanded a ransom by now? After all, it seems money is all they ever seem to be interested in.

True but I’ve seen it suggested on another forum that maybe there has been such a demand but the hijackers have demanded an information blackout, that is what happens in most kidnap cases. Its unlikely but it’s just possible.

That sounds a lot like the Comet scenario of a sudden, catastrophic failure of the fuselage, its surprising to think that something like that could still happen 60 years later. Meanwhile the Malaysians are now denying that they tracked the plane heading west, they aren’t coming out if this very well are they?

It is odd. If it had been terrorism the perpetrators would usually by now have admitted it and declared another success for Allah against the Great Infidel, or some such. Unless it was two maniacs working alone. Or as posted for some other reason altogether.

Not necessarily, admitting responsibility means that you become the focus of a lot of attention. Especially if, and this is just pure speculation, it was a bomb planted by a group opposed to the Chinese government, it would result in a pretty brutal crackdown. It’s often better to just keep quiet and not draw attention to yourself. IIRC there was never any formal claim of responsibility for Air India 182, certainly not at the time.

Yes, last contact was at around 02.40 local time.

Seeing the success of the 146 in Afghanistan makes it all the sadder that something like this wasn’t developed at the time. 🙁

As well as those already listed I’ve always like Soviet Bombers like the Tu-160 “White Swan” and although it was a flawed design I’ve always thought the Blinder was a real looker. Ironically it nearly got the ASCC codename of “Beauty!”

As others have said its BAe’s own fault it’s in this mess. Like many British firms its had no strategy except going for the quick buck, that’s why they flogged off their Airbus shares when they took fright at the rising A380 development costs, their ownership of Rover was largely responsible for that firm’s eventual demise. When BMW took over they discovered that the Longbridge plant needed massive investment to remain viable and BAe’s asset stripping meant Rover couldn’t generate the necessary cash itself.

It also needs to be asked why BAe were allowed to give up on commercial aircraft and flog off their Airbus shares, the Government should have been keeping a much tighter reign on BAe but of course this is Britain and we don’t do “Strategic Thinking.” 😡

Still no explanation about where the £1.8 billion figure has come from. I wonder if they’ve bothered to ask the French if the CdG can take the F-35 or not, wouldn’t surprise if they’re planning to use the French as scapegoats, “We’d really like to do CTOL but there’s no point doing it if the French carrier can’t take it…”

Muppets. 😡