7. How Did The Aircraft Avoid Radar Detection?
Radar is a technology developed to track things high up in the sky, not near the ground. As such, many people have speculated that Flight 370 flew very close to the ground for hours upon end to avoid detection. This is pretty dumb. First, commercial aircraft, including the Boeing 777, dont have radar evasion technology on board. They dont even know when theyre being picked up by radar, and assumptions of flying at something like 5,000 feet to avoid detection is silly, since radar would still pick that up. Second, consider the timing. Almost the entire journey of Flight 370 was made in total darkness during the early morning hours. To suggest a pilot flew below radarwhich he couldnt be sure ofwhile in the dark, and avoiding any big objects like mountainswhich they could only detect with their eyes, since commercial jets dont have warning systems for terrain or structuresis ridiculous. The more plausible explanation is also the more frightening one:
The airspace in that region just isnt monitored well by radar. Remember that vast swaths of earth do not have proper radar coverage. Now include a comment from Indias Rear Admiral Sudhir Pillai, stating that Indias military radars are used on an as required basis due to cost. Only on the border of Pakistan are they continuously on. He admitted that it was possible the military radars were switched off at the time of Flight 370s disappearance. If this is the case, how well do other countries fund their radar systems in the region? Australias radar only extends about a hundred miles off its coast. Chinas is certainly high-level, but the plane flew west, away from the sociopolitical hotbed of the South China Sea. Would any other countries really have sophisticated enough radar detection to identify Flight 370? Would they even be on?