How do you lose track of something as big as a Boeing 777?

[JEDI]

thought military radar is supposed to spot sneak attacks by planes much smaller than a 777?

ok Malaysia might not have state of the art tracking.
but China? definitely Japan!

cue theme song to LOST.
polar bears on a tropical island, anyone?

 

[SlitheryDee]

I think that despite how much we'd like to believe that we have complete satellite and radar coverage of planet earth, we just don't. We depend a whole lot on things being where they're supposed to be for much of the time in order to track them.

 

[darkxshade]

thought military radar is supposed to spot sneak attacks by planes much smaller than a 777?

And I would think if an unauthorized plane got close enough, the radar would pick it up as I would assume that's what they're designed to do. They aren't supposed to track every commercial flight in the air and considering this flight was supposed to land in Beijing, I don't see how it would be flagged suspiciously as a sneak attack by China. Plus, they weren't even remotely close enough to be a viable threat where they were last spotted.

 

[MrPickins]

Oceans are big places with minimal radar coverage.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Yarjt

 

[thescreensavers]

Its pretty easy to understand when you think about it. We still have cellphone dead zones in traveled areas within reach of populated areas.

 

[coxmaster]

There was no radar coverage in the area...

 

[BUTCH1]

Already a fairly lengthy thread about this..