Time line of events from what we have been told in the news so far...Evo Morales my interpretation

[mn9driver]

82. Nope.

I'm not going to get into the authorization and who was behind denying passage. I'm just going to address the flight path of the aircraft because that is what I do for a living.

The Falcon was at cruise altitude and remained at cruise speed until it began to descend to land. It did not "circle". It turned 180 degrees while still maintaining cruise altitude and airspeed, then descended and manuevered for an approach and landing in a very standard way.

Airplanes are not elevators. To descend from 40,000 feet takes more than 120 miles of ground track and more than 30 minutes. If the field you decide to land at is close by, circling is unavoidable. In fact it's often the case that the nearest field by distance is not the nearest field by time. This is just a natural fact of high altitude jet aviation.

It IS possible to come down faster using emergency procedures, but it is very uncomfortable and can potentially injure the occupants due to pressurization issues. They didn't do that.

Again, not saying anything about the larger issues surrounding the flight. Just pointing out that the radar record shows a normal flight track until a decision was made to turn back to a logical divert field for whatever reason.