5. How Big Is This Search Area?
In a word, humongous. Putting it to scale, it would be akin to finding one person somewhere in the continental United States. One person. The needle in a haystack analogy fits perfectly here, and although nobody is eager to admit it, Flight 370 may never be found. In fact, the search area circle has more people living inside it than the rest of the planet combined. This would also mean that landing the plane in a relatively uninhabited area would be a difficult thing to accomplish. Keep in mind, though, a plane the size of a Boeing 777 needs a large runway at least a mile long to land. Yes, lots of airports are secluded and small, but it would be incredibly difficult to believe that even such airports would accept a Boeing 777 unnoticed. Such a landing would be obvious to anyone within miles of the airport (not to mention personnel at the airport itself), and something far out of the ordinary. To date, there have been no reports of such an occurrence. Could the plane have landed in an area outside of an airport? Its possible, but not likely. No one piloting the plane that valued his or her life would want to attempt such a feat. Runways are there for a reason. Not to mention the logistics of landing the plane and subsequently hiding it as quickly as possible. Airports are the most logical place to land, and given current information in nearly two weeks time, it doesnt seem probable the plane landed at one.