Six hours at 12000 feet would burn gas a lot more than at cruising altitude. Don’t know if they considered that. It’s possible the altitude was incorrect. It may have reported at 12000 feet when in actuality they may have been at cruising altitude.
Under 16000 feet you can breathe unassisted. The air is thin but you will live. Once did an under 10000 feet unpressurized flight across the Pacific to medevac a patient. It took five aerial (military aircraft) refuels. The aircraft in question could make the same trip without refueling. This shows how much more fuel you burn flying low.
Im seriously at the point that I just have no idea what to make of this plane and where the Malaysians are getting these numbers..remember first they said it went up to 45,000 feet..then down to 23,000 then up again to 35,000 then supposedly it went down as low as 5,000 feet..I have no clue where they are coming up with this information if there is no transponder how else are they getting this radar
Debris seems to be “White and square”