Quote Originally Posted by TheCurmudgeon View Post
Well, she went somewhere. While the odds are with an electrical fire, we can not rule out that it was taken by unknown parties for a purpose yet to be disclosed.
I'm skeptical of the electrical fire theory primarily because of the maneuvers of the aircraft after it crossed the Malaysian Peninsula. In the 1.5 hours after the last radio contact, the aircraft turned West, crossed the Peninsula, and then turned northwest, where it disappeared from radar. Also, it appears that the band based on the last satellite signal is consistent with the location of the last transponder message east of the Peninsula, whereas the last radar contact had the aircraft heading northwest after having crossed the Peninsula. But I'm not a pilot or geo-spatial analyst, so my amateur reading of the images could very well be incorrect.

Is it possible that an electrical fire disabled a combination of systems that enabled the crew to fly (in the sense of remaining airborne) but not navigate or communicate? If the turn was due to computer programming and in search of a sanctuary airport, what happens to the aircraft when (1) the auto-pilot cannot physically direct the aircraft to the programmed location or (2) the auto-pilot misses the destination and/or runs out of waypoints?