Originally Posted By: Blaze
Good point...I didn't realize radar is limited! Transponders wouldn't matter...they would need something satellite based.
Most long-haul airliners already have satellite-based location reporting systems, but they typically only send location every ten minutes or so, as satellite bandwidth is expensive. AF447, for example, sent its location a few minutes before it crashed in the Atlantic, and that was used to begin the search for debris. MH370 couldn't send its position, as someone or something had disabled that system.
In this case, the aircraft was probably still in range of ground-based receivers, so probably wouldn't have been using the satellite system, if it was even installed on a short-range airliner.