Originally Posted by
MANman
I am assuming it still all ends badly as the pings do come to an end, if this report is to be believed. But the story of a possible landing may mean people were offloaded, which is very uplifting indeed.
This possibility, which seems to imply a landing and subsequent take off, begs the question of where you can land a 777 where 1) nobody notices, 2) anyone offloaded can't contact the outside world for a week, and 3) it is able to take off again and possibly even refuel.
Still, I trust the WSJ, and for this to be mentioned as a serious possibility under investigation implies someone in the US government has at least one viable scenario for this.
As far as the end of satellite communications, could this just mean that the plane is on the ground somewhere? I know from experience that satphones often don't work under tree cover or indoors, or without line of sight to the sky in a certain direction. Perhaps the system in question on the 777 is similar?