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KD5NRH wrote: It's the Obama Administration; transparency doesn't apply to their actions.

And prior administrations were totally transparent? No domestic spying, secret prisons, in-determinant detainment. The grass wasn't really greener on that front.

It'd be more like the current administration to take steps to black out the whole thing under executive privilege.. At least that would fit.

I wonder if we'll find this thing in the next year or next 20 years... It still amazes me that something this big can just disappear.

jmra wrote: Revealing my ignorance here, but I assume that in order to reach a developed area that the aircraft would have to be reequipped with legitimate credentials along with defeating any existing equipment that would indentfy her as the missing aircraft (transmitters from the engines). How difficult would it be to accomplish this? Can the transponder be reprogrammed? Would the plane need to take the identity of a planned flight? Too many flights for ATC to recognize a random identifier? Assuming the plane landed, what would be required to prep it for flight again? This isn't a Cessna.
Seems like a major undertaking that would require a lot of organization and placement of people in key roles to help pull off the "identity theft" in order to put the aircraft in a position to hit a target.

I was hoping you'd be able to answer... Discussion:
Apparently the 777 can start from on-board APU, so you'd simply need to refuel it, fire up the APU and it can start without ground assist.
In regard to "legitimate credentials" - I assume that most other places in the world are very much like the USA, you're not going to shoot down what you can't identify unless you're pre-notified of an inbound threat or you're a country on constant alert like N. Korea. Now that everyone knows that the engines broadcast data, point an engineer at the right box and that problem is solved.

I agree that it would be quite an undertaking to hijack it, land it somewhere without radar track, and re-launch it without having someone in international intelligence knowing about it.
Apparently the 777 needs around 9000' of runway to take off.. My guess is that there are quite a few roads in that part of the world that would work in a pinch...

Someone knows where that thing is, not just the people that might have taken it.

philip964 wrote:Doesn't it seem odd that the US has not said anything. Is it for fear that we would open up on how good our technology is?

If they know, that's exactly why....

The engines reporting data is very interesting.

I agree with that - posted prior people thought that missiles show up on radar... My guess would be air/air or ground/air, they're not going to show up.
It is odd to loose something this large with all the modern technology... In fact, it's odd enough to make me suspicious.

My condolences to the families of those affected.

ADS-B is fed via on-board GPS.
ADS-B coverage isn't everywhere (at least in the USA) - I have no idea about the standard or coverage in international areas. EDIT: here's the international coverage: http://flightaware.com/adsb/coverage" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;