Final map attached. Comments:
("#1" = maps in this thread's post #1, above)
White pins: selected Malaysian waypoints
Yellow pins: precise location of Inmarsat satellite at ping times
Orange pins: potential crash sites
Green pins: reported sonar pings
Red pin: multiple eyewitness account of a large, low-flying jet, white, with a red stripe, bearing SW at 9:15am
Planes: five runways in pilot's simulator (Diego Garcia & Maldives = exact; Sri Lanka = probable; India = wild guesses)
Sun: position of Will & Kate (on vacation) March 8
Thin lines: "rainbow" of IA = Inmarsat arcs/distances:
- red=2:29, orange=3:40, yellow=4:40, green=5:40, ltblue=6:40, blue=8:11
- source: Duncan Steele website
Thick lines: hypothetical flight paths:
RED line:
- mimics "HIGHEST PROBABILITY" path in #1
- I was able to pass through all IA & stay on course (except orange=3:40: either the IA data is inaccurate, or #1 is very approximate)
- many observers have assumed the 323kts in #1 must be indicated air speed; but this map confirms they mean gs = ground speed)
- per growing consensus (above, and (I hope) elsewhere), this gs is implausibly slow
WHITE line:
- mimics original NTSB "most probable path"
- 480kts gs = 777 typical cruising speed = plausible
LT BLUE line:
- straight shot to Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia (NSFDG)
- just under 4 hours at 480kts gs
LAVENDER line:
- straight shot to Maldives, where Will & Kate were vacationing on March 8
- just under 4 hours at 480kts gs until (presumably) intentions become clear -> plane shot down
GREY line:
- see "MH370 Clone" thread for discussion of this path
- long-shot feasibility in concert with LT BLUE (pre-planned)
- even longer shot as event subsequent to LAVENDER (reactive)
PINK line:
- NW (possibly, but not necessarily, "tracking" another flight), then S to NSFDG
- 8 hours from last radar contact if flown at 440kts ground speed
- hits Kudahuvadhoo at 9:15
- but really tough to reach with published fuel on board
I haven't even bothered plotting any northern routes - suffice to say I'd run out of colours long before I ran out of theories.
Comments:
1) My own guess is WHITE, with RED a craven bid to save $$$ moving what they knew would be a futile search far closer to Aussie bases
- LAVENDER (with RED to save admitting they killed hundreds to save 2) is a close 2nd (Inmarsat is UK-owned, and won't release raw data)
2) None of the alternative theories exactly teems with plausibility
3) ...but they're all worth considering for as long as the official theory continues to defy the laws of physics.
P.S. if the "MH370 Clone" were ever to be involved in a plan to abduct MH370, the smartest play would have been to switch the two planes weeks in advance. Had they pulled that off, LTBLUE + GREY becomes halfway plausible. One could even imagine a planned GREY route that was to hit the original crash site (and give the Maldives a wider berth), but which for some reason veered too far north (DAMN those flaky remote-controls!), causing both eyewitnesses and the need to concoct the absurd RED story.