My opinions only, no facts here:
I do not believe that there is any conspiratorial link between the downing of MH-17 and the disappearance of MH-370. But the reported downing of MH-17 with a BUK surface-to-air missile does show one way that a plane and all aboard can be suddenly silenced. I want to talk about what can be learned from the downing of MH-17, that could apply to various theories about MH-370.
First, the linear distance of ground debris from MH-17 may be as much as nine miles. Does this mean that all missile strikes cause the targeted plane to disintegrate in mid-air? No. KAL-007 was shot down by the Russians (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Air_Lines_Flight_007). Two air-to-air missiles were fired and the plane was damaged. Yet the plane did not blow up or burst into flame. Interestingly, damage to a cable that controlled the elevators caused KAL-007 to climb for almost two minutes, well above its original cruising altitude of 35,000 feet. All-in-all the plane remained in the air for at least a few minutes before crashing into the ocean, probably nearly whole. Equally interesting, most or all of the 213 pieces of debris initially found at sea or washed up consisted of SHOES. Later on, items that washed up in Japan, included 13 human fragments, dentures, newspapers, seats, books, paper cups, a camera case, a seat-belt sign, oxygen mask, handbag, limited clothing, a couple of identity cards, and of course- more shoes. What bothered me about the initial search in the Gulf of Thailand for MH-370 was that the various searchers found debris but said it was not related to the missing plane. Did they find shoes? Did they know what was relevant? Searches such as this occur infrequently, and memories from the lessons of past searches fade.
Secondly, it is claimed that MH-17 was not burning after it was hit by the missile. Yes, of course. It was hit at cruising altitude. There is not enough pressurized oxygen at 35,000 feet to even light a match outside the plane. Frankly, you will find that open-air fires do very poorly at 35,000 feet. Counter-intuitively, this is not because of a lower percentage of oxygen in the atmosphere, but because of a lower partial-pressure of oxygen. This is what has always bugged me about the TWA-800 disaster. The vapors in the empty center fuel tank of TWA-800 supposedly exploded violently and instantly at 13,760 feet (from a single spark). Let me tell you about a spark. In the 1980's we were attempting to refuel a nearly-empty fuel tank on an aircraft (with Jet-B) at less than 1000 feet of ground elevation. The electric fuel pump shorted out immediately and shot a spray of sparks into the empty fuel tank. So we were all blown up, right? Wrong. What happened, is the ignited vapors in the fuel tank did NOT HAVE ENOUGH oxygen (even below 1000 feet of elevation) to blow up. The ignited vapors created a rhythmic "woofing" sound, with each "woof" louder and more alarming than the previous one, as the empty tank sucked in more outside oxygen. Finally, the mechanic shoved a rag into the open fuel tank outlet and- problem solved! But with TWA-800, we have to accept that at more than 13 times that altitude (far lower outside partial pressure of oxygen) AND with the fuel cap on (not taken off as in our 1980's refueling situation to allow free atmospheric ingress), the TWA-800 tank blew up like a box of Trimtex dynamite on Looney Tunes. But this is not to say that a missile will not carry the oxygen with it to create the explosive reaction, only that the resulting fire around and about the plane may be pretty pitiful at 35,000 feet. So, if the oil rig worker in the Gulf of Thailand actually saw a 'fire' from a plane at cruising altitude, it would likely be from the missile itself, and not a burning plane. And I am not saying that this is what he saw!
Lastly, as some of you may have learned from today's press releases, modern ground-to-air missiles travel FAST. Way over 2000 miles per hour. If you blink, you could miss the event.
This post is not intended to promote theories that MH-370 was downed by an errant missile. This post is for informational purposes only.
Sleuth On!