I don't think you can tell - just the size and where it's coming from, so they judge based on that, and then they will make contact with it if they are unsure. That's why planes have been shot down accidentally.
Airlines and I'm sure the military have monitoring systems that track their own planes, but I don't think they can tell which enemy plane is which definitively.
Agreed - whatever Malaysia is doing, I highly doubt the U.S. is backing down. It's hard to judge anyone's behavior right now because I believe the U.S. is probably telling people how to act and there's a reason certain information is being kept secret. The U.S. doesn't seem eager to share information, so that would indicate they are concerned and involved and telling people to release only certain information. Maybe they're releasing contradicting reports on purpose. U.S. officials could easily correct the reports coming out if they want to, but they seem to be reasonably okay with the chaos, and even Malaysia isn't protesting that much.
I TOTALLY agree.
There is "confusion" on purpose, IMO.
I remember in the very first few days, when they were still searching South China Sea, there were reports that the plane might have "turned west."
It was during the time everyone was still focused on the ocean right where the plane went off radar.
Then, it turned out that those reports were true.
Meaning, Malaysia obviously had this information from early, early on, I'm thinking the very first day. Also, they would have had their own defense information certainly that same day (that there was a plane on military radar).
Meanwhile, what did China do?
China sent everyone to a totally different location - way East, based on some satellite image of a supposed plane that they DID NOT RELEASE close-up zoomed views of.
The arc path, if one takes the idea that the plane flew to the north side of the projected arc, would have taken it MOSTLY across one country - China.
I am beginning to view China in a very suspicious light right now.