“Assuming authorities are correct(the last signal being located 120 nautical miles (140 miles; 225 kilometers) southwest of Vietnam’s southernmost Ca Mau province)that’s only about 300nm from departure...early reports said contact was lost “2 hours” into the flight. Something there doesn’t jive.”
This is bothering me a lot more after looking at a map.
There’s no way the plane made so little progress in 2 hours unless it had been circling and circling senselessly after takeoff.
Or maybe the 2 hour figure reported is wrong?
Contact was lost with the plane after 40 minutes. From what I gather, the 2 hour number was an ‘official’ number. In other words, they tried to continue making contact with the plane for another hour+ before officially declaring contact lost. At least that’s my understanding.