El Reg has a "what we really know" piece regarding MH370, with sanity checking.
Hm. Possibly a high-value cargo, such as large amounts of currency. And: there'd been speculation already that the passengers, and any crew not in on the heist, had been incapacitated (probably killed), perhaps by decompressing the cabin while the pilots were on emergency oxygen.
Sounds a bit like Thunderball, minus the nukes. Look for a plausible destination with calm, shallow water where the plane could have been ditched and the cargo retrieved. And a cluster of well-fed sharks.
Update: speculation of unreasonably heavy cargo, nature as yet undisclosed. Curious.
Update 2: Donald Sensing is now pointing out that confirmed information, such as it is, is consistent with a fire on board. Which would fit with speculation, seen elsewhere, that the cargo might have included a big shipment of lithium batteries. All of which is much more interesting from an aviation-safety perspective than from a thriller-writing perspective.
Update 3: revisiting the link in Update 2, I find an update reporting that the FMS was programmed for the turn before the last, routine radio contact. Which would rule out the fire hypothesis, and indeed just about any non-barratrous scenario.
Update 4: now El Reg reports that there's floating debris right around the extreme end of the possible flight range. Which, if it's from MH370, would be consistent with "FMS reprogrammed, passengers and crew overcome by fumes, fire doesn't destroy anything needed for flight, plane continues on autopilot until it runs out of fuel". Apart from the business of FMS having been reprogrammed to head for somewhere-near-Austraila at least 12 minutes before the fire started, if that is indeed the case. Perhaps there was no fire, but a gradual loss of pressurization? But that should have set off alarms, right? And why would a hypoxic flight crew program in a new (non-descending) course while still retaining the ability to check in with ATC several minutes later, sounding normal?
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