General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Missing Malaysia Airlines Plane Hijacked, Official Confirms [View all]mn9driver
(4,848 posts)But the longer it goes without the aircraft being found somewhere, the less likely that becomes.
There are some isolated, abandoned airstrips in that part of the world that you could "in theory" land a 777 on, but I expect that every one of them has been looked at in the the last couple of days. And there certainly aren't a whole lot of them. You can't land an airplane this size on a beach or a jungle clearing and get a good outcome. It needs concrete.
An airplane this big is also unlikely to stay very intact and floating in a ditching situation. Even a really good water landing like the Hudson River event in a smaller aircraft resulted in enough damage to the fuselage that it sank completely as it was being tied up at the dock. I don't think a 777 would fare as well on the open ocean.
Aircraft life rafts have ELT transmitters that can be picked up by satellites. There's been no word of that. It really doesn't look good.