Comment Re:wat (Score 1) 293
These pings (including an unscheduled "incomplete" one that Inmarsat says is consistent with the hardware rebooting after a short power cut, which is to be expected when the fuel runs out on an airliner) as well as the few signals of the blackboxes are the ONLY hard evidence we have. It's far better than nothing though and we would have nothing if the Inmarsat hardware on that plane wouldn't have pinged the satellite with a data-less handshake every hour despite the airline not subscribing to the engine monitoring program (in which case we would have detailed data).
Everyone with the slightest scientific inkling should know which trail to follow here. And everyone with the slightest commercial inkling should know how to use that golden opportunity to get you into the news. And everyone with an axe to grind will know how to use that plane to further his case, whatever it may be.
Sometimes I think if the pilot of that plane cunningly vanished it along with the crew and the passengers and his own live just to spite his government and create a mystery he nearly perfectly succeeded. And without this tiny technical detail of the satellite handshakes we would have not the tiniest chance to ever find out what happened. Just imagine that. The perfect meme bomb.