Ok... that was a long 24hrs! (I was in the naughty corner for being a little cheeky last night in thread
...)
In celebration of my release from websleuths jail, I have another "option" that I would like to add to the "opinion polls"...
Not at all my personal belief and just another interesting spin on it...
The aircraft suffered a catastrophic event which resulted in crew incapacity either over time or rapidly. Attempted a diversion to alternate and succumbed (for reasons yet unknown and hard to explain) before a safe recovery of the aircraft was completed - Malaysia was aware of the emergency event on board and sent up a fast jet escort to make a visual assessment of the aircraft and attempt to communicate with passengers or crew. This was *before* the aircraft made a change of course on a heading that tracked toward an approach that was familiar to the pilot in command (which he may have trained on his home simulator for just such emergency's) and the intercept heading for the fast jet was quickly changed - the pilot throwing the Su-30 into full military power with augment as he turned the jet around (which was what the NZ oil rig worker may have seen... possibly)... upon form up with the Malaysian Airlines 777, the lack of radio communication and a distinct lack of life via either visual signal or otherwise indicated to the SU-30 crew that there was no conscious or able person on board the stricken jet who would likely recover (maybe they knew a little of what had happened and realized it was a rapid and major loss of life event on board) - so they were instructed to maintain escort with the plane until it flew over the Malaysian Peninsula and out to sea, where it would no longer pose a threat to any lives on the ground.
Instructions would have been to shoot the 777 down should it change course without communication toward a populated area or should it begin to descend out of control toward populated space.
The jet flew past the alternate airport and its required entry's to a successful approach - and continued out to sea (as was seen by Malaysian Lilitary radar who were already well aware of the ghost planes tragic story) - where the chaos and disbelief of what had occurred quickly resulted in a total $shitstorm of incompetence and disorganisation by a shambles government that was simply not capable of dealing with the complex and high profile event, which might have been a real 1 in a million that no one could ever have otherwise forseen as realistically occuring.
They then proceeded to bury their heads in the sand and hope it all went away.
The End.
No fact or inside info in this - just me typing up an enthusiastic return to the forums.