My immediate thought was the club in Alan Partridge, but that's Cloisters, not Cahoots

Given that there's hardly been any shortage of theories previously, how come no theory has been advanced as to how this plane could have ended up crashing in the far southern Indian ocean?

The reports of possible wreckage floating seem to have been taken seriously enough to divert very expensive search assets, which would presumably tie in with the seeming fact that the location of this debris broadly ties in with a point on the curved satellite track; but why would the plane do a U-turn, and then fly perfectly normally for several hours on a route aimed at Antarctica, until it ran out of fuel?

If something happened on board to cause changes in direction, OK I can understand that as a lielihood, but then either the persons flying the plane sat in the cockpit for several hours en route to an Antarctica which they could never reach anyway, (and there is literally no other destination that way) or else set the autopilot to head for the pole. It couldn't have happened accidentally.

I'm no expert, but that Greek jet a few years back flew on until it ran out of fuel, so perhaps this one turned to try and locate somewhere to land but then events took over and prevented any further changes to flight path and it just continued on until the fuel ran out. The debris doesn't seem too far from the suggested areas it could have reached.

If you want outlandish theories though, just have a butchers at today's tabloids.

Ferocious Aardvark wrote:If something happened on board to cause changes in direction, OK I can understand that as a lielihood, but then either the persons flying the plane sat in the cockpit for several hours en route to an Antarctica which they could never reach anyway, (and there is literally no other destination that way) or else set the autopilot to head for the pole. It couldn't have happened accidentally. ...or possibly something happened similar to the plane crash that killed Payne Stewart but on a bigger scale ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_South_Dakota_Learjet_crash

Ferocious Aardvark wrote:If something happened on board to cause changes in direction, OK I can understand that as a lielihood, but then either the persons flying the plane sat in the cockpit for several hours en route to an Antarctica which they could never reach anyway, (and there is literally no other destination that way) or else set the autopilot to head for the pole. It couldn't have happened accidentally. ...or possibly something happened similar to the plane crash that killed Payne Stewart but on a bigger scale ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_South_Dakota_Learjet_crash

JerryChicken wrote:...or possibly something happened similar to the plane crash that killed Payne Stewart but on a bigger scale ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_South_Dakota_Learjet_crash What if it was god that killed him for his dress-sense?

JerryChicken wrote:...or possibly something happened similar to the plane crash that killed Payne Stewart but on a bigger scale ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_South_Dakota_Learjet_crash What if it was god that killed him for his dress-sense?

Then that would be understandable, a tad harsh, but understandable if The God were having a bad day, woke up with one of those headaches over the left eye that won't be shifted, poured sour milk on his cornflakes and didn't notice until he'd taken a mouthfull, run out of orange juice, stubbed his toe on the table leg - that sort of bad start to the day, you could understand The God glancing out of The Heavenly Window and shouting "Who the fook is that joker getting on that private plane, I'm having him today..."

I knew you'd get it.
Poulter will be wary of air travel if my theory proves correct.

But that cannot be true in this case, simply because the plane was within easy reach of numerous airstrips where it could have landed, but (if it was on autopilot) it was set to fly south towards Antarctica, where there simply was no conceivable target airport. The plane could have been aimed in pretty much any other point of the compass and been able to find airports, but not that direction. That's my point, that even if hypoxia disabled all the crew, before it did so then there is no reason for them to set a course for the pole, of all places.

If it was turned and put on autopilot then without a doubt the autopilo0t would be set tot he course of the target airport. Anyway if it was an emergency I cannot imagine any pilot going to autopilot, it would be manually flown to the nearest landing, ASAP.

And if it was not on autopilot then somebody was flying it for 7 or 8 hours in that direction.

Autopilots can't land the plane safely, can they? No good sending it to an airport, which is usually within about 10 miles of a major city, if that plane is going to be making a crash landing.

If the pilots are going to be dead in a very short time, and therefore everyone on the plane is likely to die too (or be dead already), the main thing to do is point the plane where it's not going to take anyone else out. Antarctica is pretty much that place.

We suddenly have a plethora of Sin Bin expert aviators.