MH 370: Missing Malaysian Airliner

[David Guyatt]

If it was hijacked, which now seems likely, it would surely mean that some form of communication took place? Otherwise why do it?

Agreed, but there are four possibilities: 1] the hijackers didn't get around to their communication before the plane went down. 2] communication has been made, but is being kept secret. 3] the pilots were the 'hijackers' and were on a suicide mission or apply 1 and 2. 4] the hijacking was done remotely/electronically and likely add 2 here. In any of these scenarios, if the hijackers or their allies are outside and alive the flight they can say to one or all governments [openly - or more likely secretly], the same can happen to your planes whenever we wish....i.e. blackmail for money or political purposes [I'd guess the second].

While they haven't yet released the data on how much fuel the plane had, they now have changed from 0 to 4 to 5 to now 7! hours that the plane was flying beyond its last known point on the original flight plan, where radar was lost!...that means it could have flown to India, Kazakstan, Pakistan, Ceylon or many other nations [or islands along the way of which there are hundreds - possibly even Afghanistan!!!! Considering the plane had fuel to Peking, they had enough fuel to travel seven hours beyond the original one [when contact was lost]. Very strange, indeed!

But why the secrecy if investigating nations don't have some complicity in what happened or in suppressing what happened?...to whit:

The data stream that was interrupted shortly after 1 a.m. [7 hours after diversion from original flight path] on March 8 flows through a two-way onboard computer system known as ACARS, the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System.
"It is very possible for you as a pilot in the cockpit to turn off the ACARS system," the official said. "If you knew what you were doing in the cockpit, you could shut off ACARS transmission."
But the ability of the satellite to locate the plane which he referred to as a "handshake" in which no information is exchanged cannot be terminated from the cockpit.
"There's no push button," he said. "There's no circuit breaker that would allow you to shut off the handshake."
That satellite handshake took place on a system operated by Inmarsat, a British satellite company that provides global mobile telecommunications services.
U.S. officials declined to say how closely that handshake allowed them to track the path of the missing plane.

I'll opt for 2 myself. The reason will probably come out in due course. Based on the last para the US knows exactly where the aircraft either is or came down.