Agreed. One of the final sentences appears to contradict the thesis presented throughout the rest of the article.
> In my view suicide looks unlikely – he would have had to been very lucky to kill the other pilot, then fly undetected to a remote spot in the sea and either crash or run out of fuel – it doesn’t add up.
Why is this question being asked? The transponder codes clearly weren't stopped - the MH370 one stopped transmitting and no other aircraft followed the known onward flightpath of "MH370". Otherwise this is just rehashing and conjecture. But then this IS Yahoo...
Just as a technical point, the transponder would be set to MAS370.
The ACARS would be set to MH370.
It's a minor point but significant in the separation of air traffic control ( transponder ) and airline operations ( ACARS ).
You can think of the flight number MH370 as the interface contract ( 'We will fly you from KL to Beijing' ) and MAS370 as the reification of that. In fact, there could be several physical flights underlying the logical flight number.
I think the suggestion is that this swap would of happened early in the flight. MH370 heads away disguised as the other thing. Once enough time has passed then the other thing turns off the transponder and then heads off, perhaps being detected by defence radar along the way.
So a plan that requires the use of another fast aircraft for no particular advantage...
My crazy theory was similar. Swap early (perhaps on the ground so that MH370 might even never have left), other plane flies out, turns off code, and returns. The other plane is smaller and so can land on more runways than a 777, and even if seen would not arouse suspicious since no one is looking for it. Perhaps a transponder is even then used with a drone to make it look like MH370 flies out west over the ocean and disappears. Drone crashes in the ocean, but is small enough that even if debris is spotted, it won't be connected with MH370.
I bet the writers of "Elementary" could make a good episode out of this.
Conversely, MH370 could potentially have later turned its transponder back on, masquerading as a different aircraft, in order to penetrate (for example) India's airspace without arousing suspicion.
