>A detectable U-turn before transponder was disconnected would
> be very careless

Last I heard, the military retracted that they'd seen it do a U-turn,
leading to questions about which particular clown is running things

A fan of the National Geographic series Air Crash Investigation,
seen them all.

Can think of a few times that planes have gone down without
contact.

Bad or misunderstood instrumentation, night or whiteout conditions.
Plane hits a mountain or is so low pilot can't pull up.

Sudden and catastrophic frame failure, eg wing or tail drops off
putting the plane into such a forceful spinning dive that the crew
simply can't operate the radio. Or cockpit crew incapacitated by
fumes from an unseen fire in the electrical or ventilation ducts.
Slowly drift off to sleep. No one else can get into the cockpit.
Dont know whether passengers can get phone connection in that
area.

Could be something really weird, like a small meteorite or space
debris.

Joe
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