Mar 18th 2014, 4:45:48
Those transponders boost the range for detection of aircraft and report geographical location, speed, heading and altitude, in the absence of the transponder, the aircraft is only visible to a radar powerful enough to be able to bounce the signal off the plane, in addition, let's not forget the curvature of the earth since radar is a line of sight operation. In the Indian Ocean, there are not many "advanced" radars in use, except for naval radars possibly in use by warships of the US Navy, Russian Navy, Chinese Navy, etc. The Indians have not spent a great deal of cash on advanced radar systems, nor has any other nation in the area, they just don't really need it. Thus, there is logically a huge blind spot over the Indian Ocean outside of the AOR of an Aircraft Carrier's battle group, which may not be out at sea, but might be in port somewhere, again with the limitarion of the curve of the earth. The plane going down in the Indian Ocean is easily concievable as there may not have been anything there to observe it. Speculation that some nation seized the plane for potential use as a weapon delivery system is not out of th realm of possibility given the extreme range capabilities of the aircraft.
Fundamentally, at this point, it's a waiting game. It can['t be hidden forever if it has been appropriated, and if it did go down in the Ocean, then there is a hell of a lot of space for it to be lost in.
It's a crap shoot right now.
I don't need anger management, people need to stop pissing me off!