Blown up over the ocean? sunk to the bottom of the ocean? stollen or hijacked?

As a --ahem-- champion wargamer, there's one vital rule I abide by- "Expect the unexpected and never take your enemy for granted".
Military history is full of surprise attacks, remember Pearl Harbor..

There's a difference between surprise attacks and stupid attacks. Stealing a passenger liner for a future sneak attack is like stealing a Honda Civic so you can sneak into the Indy 500 and try to win the race.

Yes, the airliner might simply have crashed in the sea due to mechanical failure of some sort or an accidental onboard fire.
If the muslim world really wanted to hit the West with terror attacks there are a hundred ways they could do it without stealing an airliner; my reading of the strategic situation is that they're biding their time waiting til they get their hands on nuke weapons (including backpack nukes), then it'll really hit the fan..

You were champion because you'd played more games than anyone else, you'd also lost more games than anyone else. You can believe your own hype, just don't expect anyone else to.

It's also meaningless, someone can get the high score on Cooking Mama and still not be able to make a piece of toast without burning it.

I was busy helping my wife get ready for work, so missed most of it, but part of the explanation had to do with so much betting disabled at one time, if I caught him correctly.

So the latest information that I have seen as of this morning 19th Mar 2014, indicates that the flight turn reported by the news, took place before the final "Alright, Goodnight" message was sent.

At this point, if that information is true, then it removes the possibility of any type of fire situation on the flight. This keeps getting more and more interesting, and makes it look more and more like an act of terrorism/hijacking.

What I gathered too.

The timing of the programmed flight turn might be explained by a cautious pilot preparing for an emergency by pre-entering his most likely emergency runway. But like you, this type of possibility is starting to slip down in my list of probabilities. It's still possible, but looking less probable.

I'm seeing a lot more challenge to the "Hero Pilot" theory as they are calling it. And some of the challenges sound pretty plausible.

Even more damning that the timing of the flight plan change is one claim that the airplane was actively navigating and changing direction and following waypoints well beyond that island. If that is true, then I would say it pretty much kills the Hero Pilot theory. But I'm also very suspicious of the accuracy of many of the additional reports that keep coming in. There are too many rumors floating around from un-named sources and I can't tell what's accurate any more.

But there are also aspects of the Hijacking scenario which don't make sense either. Various US intelligence agencies report that there isn't a single shred of "chatter" about this in normal terrorist channels. And we know from Snowden that the US has got its feelers into just about everyone's cookie jars at this point. There also doesn't seem to be a good motive to hijack this plane.

You're right, this is still a very frustrating mystery.

So far, I lean to a personal quirk of one of the pilots.

I'm seeing a lot of pushback on this theory now. And some of it sounds pretty plausible.

So now I'm not sure which way to lean any more.

I will say one thing, IF this plane was indeed hijacked (and that's still a big IF) then I bet it's on the ground somewhere, safe but hidden. I just can't see any reason for someone to plan and execute a very crafty theft of a flying aircraft just to fly it into the ocean and let it run out of fuel and crash.

I'm back on the fence for the moment. I've heard too many good arguments for and against every scenario. The probabilities all seem balanced at the moment.

The reports have been all over the place...and the Malaysian authorities do not seem the most competent to ever handle a situation like this. I would not base anything on the timing coming from them, because if you wait a bit...the timing scenario will change.

The notion that the crew met some trouble; was dealing with it; and then they and the passengers were all overcome in some way (unable to make a report)...seems the most likely to me at the moment.

Tough to say this, but that scenario seems to allow for a peaceful death for everyone concerned...unconscious and then dead at impact.

There was a Japanese plane once that due to structural malfunction was stuck in a circling pattern with no way out. It eventually ran out of fuel and crashed after many hours in the air with no control. That must have been hell.

I've just swung towards the "nutty pilot" theory after seeing a piece in yesterdays Daily Express that says the pilot Captain Zaharie's hero (the gay anti-government activist Anwar Abrahim) was jailed just hours before the plane took off.
So Zaharie must have been stewing with rage in the cockpit and might have flipped his lid and decided to crash it into a city or something out of spite.
The Express suggests there may have been a struggle in the cockpit which would account for its sudden altitude change.

I haven't heard that one yet, but I did hear that they found proof that he had deleted a bunch of flight simulator files from his PC. No word on if they had recovered those files or what they contained. But when you combine that information with the fact that 2 Iranians were on the plane with stolen passports, I still lean towards the hijack theory.

I delete files from my computer all the time. I don't really find it surprising that he deleted some flight simulator runs from his computer. I would be more surprised if he never deleted anything.

Yes we all delete files, but I don't know anyone who plays games of any type, that deletes their gaming files. The question is, did he routinely delete those types of files? Were certain files deleted and others kept. The interesting information will be what is found if those files are recovered.

I wonder which flight sim it was, I've got Flight Sim X and it'd come in very useful for learning to pick up landmarks during a kamikaze run-in to a city or whatever.
The 2 Iranians sound suspicious, but Iran has become less hateful towards America just lately since Obama gave them the go-ahead to carry on building nuke reactors.

The Iranian terrorist angle has been debunked...in fact they used false passports because they were going to seek asylum.

The deleted files are a fascinating tidbit though.

One pilot nods off; the other pilot takes advantage to do the deed. That's the best I can think of.