So, to continue with my thoughts on the missing plane. Again, these are loose thoughts as the blog title suggests, so they aren't very well organized, but I think I was contemplating my own criteria for evaluating the possibilities. I had left off with the odd situation where no serious attention seemed to have been paid to the situation for an unusually long period of time. With a good understanding of the potential damage and the speed of such craft, having one missing for even a quarter of an hour would suggest a serious threat, and should have brought all available resources to the task of finding it. That wouldn't necessarily mean that it would be found, of course. What to make of the various reports? Well, I suppose it depends in part upon the source, doesn't it? Just perhaps the general public is a little on the lazy side and finds it easier to simply tune in the television and listen to the 'experts' who are presented between advertisements. In addition, for reasons that I continually fail to understand, people are willing to accept the 'official' reports issued by government agencies. There is the concept of misinformation and any person or group is capable of supplying or promoting it. I don't think it is unreasonable to ask where their true interest might be. It did seem to me that some of the 'information' that became available came from sources that just could have gained from confusion. Some of the 'conspiracy' theories make note of the British owned American leased Island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. If, as again some reports suggest, the early departure from the planed course was toward the west, it could suggest a number of possibilities for an alternate destination, among the list would be Diego Garcia. Some say that it is a major listening post for electronic intelligence, some say that it is a major military base able to service even aircraft carriers and submarines, and some say that it was even one of a small number of alternate landing sites for the space shuttle program. I've never been there, but if those reports are true, it would certainly suggest to me that they would first of all have the most sophisticated of surveillance capabilities and a very good reason to be attending to them with absolutely no interruption. In addition, any and all military vessels would have every reason to be interested in the traffic on under or above the surface. It just doesn't make any sense to me that a 777 could go flying around without anybody noticing it. I would think that anything traveling at high speed in their general direction would have required a response or at the very least an alert condition. Its one of those "If not, why not?" questions. And how could I be expected to believe some weak answer like, "It was someone's birthday so everyone had the night off." or something similar. Could it be that it was noticed, that it was tracked, that its identity and course were known? I'm kind of thinking that there would be few situations where a plane could head in the direction of a remote military base without being intercepted and probably destroyed. Again it is time to take a break, but to end that thought I'm thinking that planes going to or returning from secret missions might not be broadcasting their identity or location and still not be shot down because they were expected.