Where might have Flight 370 gone if it actually landed somewhere? I have no theories or insider knowledge, nor do I believe in the certainty that the some conspiracy exists. But given the map showing where the lost flight's fuel would have permitted it to go, it is interesting to speculate about where the flight might have landed, if that is what happened, and the passengers are still alive, being secretly imprisoned by persons unknown for reasons unknown. I have thought of a profile, however, for the kind of place where the plane might have been forced to go, lying within its operational range:
It would have to be
a place with a long enough runway. Also, if the hijackers wanted secrecy, that airstrip had to be one where they could land secretly. It would have to be someplace remote where the facility would be, basically, closed at the time of landing. Then it would be necessary to hide the aircraft while the passengers were transferred in secret. Ideally, it would be a location rich in support among the local population. For purposes of speculation and discussion only, I have identified a place like that. Follow me into the tall grass to learn about it and discuss the likelihood that other similar places exists as destinations for Flight 370, if, indeed, it ever landed.
Consider the Hotan Oasis.
That tiny spec of green in the Southwest hinterland of the vast, sandy wastes of Chinese Central Asia's
Takla Makan Desert is the home of
people who, overwhelmingly, are not ethnically Chinese, are not linguistically Chinese, are not historically Chinese and are not culturally Chinese. I am speaking of the
Uighur ethnic minority.
All over central and southern Asia, there are many ethnic minorities with a history of struggle for independence, . The Uighur people are certainly one of these. Unsurprisingly, some among the overwhelmingly Muslim Uighurs chafe under the yoke of an officially atheist Chinese state. A jihadist Wahabi Al Qaeda associated organization calling itself the East Turkestan Islamic Movement not only exists. It was blamed just four months ago of organizing a suicide attack in Beijing.
On a large bay of the desert reaching into the south edge of the Woton Oasis, there lies a large airstrip and small terminal that serves commercial passengers, a total of 18 flights a day. Those flights operate from about 10:00 AM until 11:00 PM.
If Google's images are to be trusted, there doesn't appear to be any obvious military deployment around the airport, which, from above seems to have a long southern perimeter stretching along open desert extending all the way to the mountains to the South. Here is a closer look:
In the middle of the night, when Flight 370 landed, somewhere, if that is what happened, the passenger operations at Woton airport were certainly shut down, with skeletan crew and normal security only on duty, at most. A determined cadre might find it possible to infiltrate such positions. It might also be possible to move an aircraft into the desert and camouflage it.
A few minutes of Google searching and a few more on Google Earth led me right to the Woton Oasis. No doubt there are plenty of other places in Asia, within the range of the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777; a place that might produce a cadre trained and motivated to pull off an in-flight airliner heist; a place sufficiently isolated to land an airliner in secrecy but still have an adequate runway. I don't mean to single out the long suffering Uighur people nor tar them all with an Al Qaeda brush. It is equally possible that other people and causes account for the loss of this Flight. There may gave been many other landing places, or, most sadly to face, none at all.
But, so long as this mystery persists I am much better comforted by imagining the passengers still alive, even if they are held secretly captive by we don't know who because of we don't know why.
if I was M, wanted to know the fate of Flight 370, and didn't have a better lead, I'd send 007 to Woton.