From another angle, I'm wondering why in this era of "everyone online", that if there started to be trouble, *why no one got a digital communication off*. 239 people and no one managed to tweet something?! How about just someone's phone syncing email? Wouldn't that produce a ping on the cell tower?
-TaoPhoenix
Possibilities in no particular order:
- No receiving tower within range
- No phone handy. Not all airlines allow in flight use of cellphones. Some places make you shut it off and pack it with your luggage.
- Something nefarious was planned, and those responsible brought a jammer - most likely disguised as a cellphone. Interesting possibility since the flight transponder also went silent while the flight was supposedly in the air. That would slot in nicely with a hijacking.
- Rapid catastrophic flight failure - no time to tweet.
- Alien abduction.
- The first incident that marks the beginning of The Rapture.
Movie suggestion:
Gus Parker is unhappily married. He is on a business trip to sell advanced surveillance technology to despotic small eastern governments. Unbeknownst to him, suicide hijackers (abetted by Russian right-wing ultra-nationalists) are on board who have obtained a black market Soviet era tactical nuke and have seized control of the plane with the intent of detonating the device over Kiev if the Ukrainian government does not agree to cede Crimea to the Russian Federation. Gus realizes he is about to die and attempts to call his wife intending to apologize for not being a better father and a husband - an attempt complicated by the fact his phone is packed in his flight case in the overhead luggage rack. The hijackers scream for Gus to sit back down and wave their weapons menacingly at the cabin passengers. Suddenly Gus disappears
along with 10 percent of the other passengers. Only their empty clothing remains to mark the spot where they were sitting. Gus it seems has sincerely and truly repented of his sins, attained salvation, and been transported to heaven along with the other faithful in the plane. The hijackers freak out and threaten to detonate the bomb unless somebody tells them where the missing passengers went - which leads to an interesting debate between them and the passengers about life, duty, salvation, and right action - with a healthy dose of patriotism and "family values" thrown in for good measure. The hijackers believe the element of surprise is now blown but decide to salvage what they can of their mission and detonate their bomb anyway. They fly over the ocean, away from any populated coastline, and prepare to broadcast a prepared speech which will now characterize their mission as a "first warning" - with a threat that others will follow in their footsteps if the Ukrainian issue is not resolved peacefully and fairly for all Ukrainians. (Apparently the earlier debate led to a semi-change of heart even though they still remain 'bad guys.') But before they can do so, the plane and all it's passengers abruptly disappear - abducted by a huge UFO that is only briefly glimpsed before all that is left is an empty sky over an endless and restless sea. <Eerie music swells. Fade to black.> <Text scrolls up on screen:>
FLIGHT 234 DISAPPEARED WITHOUT A TRACE.
DESPITE A MASSIVE MULTINATIONAL SEARCH EFFORT NEITHER THE PLANE OR ITS WRECKAGE WAS EVER FOUND NOR WAS ITS BLACK BOX FLIGHT RECORDER EVER RECOVERED.
THE INCIDENT REMAINS UNDER INVESTIGATION.
THE FATE OF ITS 300 PASSENGERS REMAINS UNKNOWN.
<Music swells. Quick fade to black. Cut to Verizon commercial>
Yeah...that's so sucky it just might become the next uber-successful "made for TV" movie.
Hey NBC? ABC? CBS? FOX? Call me!
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