Quote:
Originally Posted by Wormius
At some point, surely passengers will get cellular voice and data services if they have landed safely somewhere.
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I was wondering about the timing too from the passenger's perspective. Only the pilots would know that the plane is off course. Passengers would normally be sleeping but even awake, unless they were following along an inflight map or GPS, they wouldn't have any idea that the flight path has been altered. The first sign of suspicion though would be when they realize that they have been in the air for longer than expected. The flight time is only suppose to be 4 hours, and if the plane was possibly still in the air 5 hours after last radar contact (assuming the plane lost contact 1 hour into the flight), it would mean they were in the air 2 hours longer than expected. Unless of course it was an obvious hijacking and there were bad guys in the cabin.
But that would lead to problem #2
The only way to prevent passengers from communicating with their devices would be for the bad guys go to each passenger and take away all their electronics while the plane is still in the air. That would require some man power though as 9/11 has instilled a precedent of passengers trying to resist or retake control from hijackers. Even then, it's a big plane, and if even one passenger lied about not having a phone, there would be an opportunity to get the word out if the plane did indeed land safely.
Realistically, I think it could have started as a hijacking, but I think the plane ended up crashing. Otherwise, the authorities would have heard about it by now, either through ransom demand, passenger communication, or reports of a suspicious plane.