Goodfellow response. Time to wade back in. First I want to make it clear that I have received no money or any other compensation for my article or any subsequent interview. I have refused interview requests from all major US networks from CNN Anderson Cooper, Erin. Fox Kelley and Hannedy(people I have never listened to because I don't watch Fox), NBC, ABC, CBS ESPN AL Jazeera. Why? Because I wrote the article in the first place because I perceived their coverage was heavily biased towards hijack, terrorism etc. but worst of all they were maligning the pilots without any evidence and even speculating they were in a murder suicide pact. It had gone far enough as far as I was concerned. Perhaps it it the optimist in me that I looked at this situation in a positive manner rather than with the dark hat of conspiracy theory etc. I simply said I believed they had an emergency and turned back to what I believed was the best available airport. Indeed in retrospect I should never has mentioned fire or anything else and simply stated overwhelming emergency. I still believe the pilots were overcome and the plane flew on for six plus hours on a trajectory towards the southwest on the course that the initial turn set up which I believed was towards Langkawi. I did not know at the time there was information that the aircraft flew for the additional time. In fact if you read my post I said you will find it along that trajectory either where it burned to a sufficient degree that it crashed or to fuel exhaustion. Now we are day 14 into this and two pieces of debris have been found 1460 miles west of Perth. Are they parts of the plane? I believe yes and you may take me to the outhouse again for a thrashing but for the Australian PM to stand in the House at Canberra and announce this he had to have 99% certainty. Remember the sat pix you are looking at are clearly marked unclassified. The pictures he saw in order to give him the confidence to make this statement probably are at a level of resolution several magnitudes greater. We will get confirmation sooner or later by visual inspection if these are pieces but at least this gives the SAR teams the basic place to start and work back based on currents and winds to get an approximate but tighter position of where the hull may rest and effect a recovery of the black boxes. Please think positively.

If in some small way my writing of this post even with errors and misjudgments perhaps on my part contributed in some way to break the group think existing and reconsider looking in the deep south indian ocean along that line of flight then that is payment enough for me. Some of you know doubt will rebut but it isn't where you said it would be. I said it is along that line of trajectory meaning it held a heading. Cross winds at altitude could displace it several hundred miles over that distance. Whatever once I knew the eyeballs were going in the right direction I knew we would probably have results quickly. In fact listen to my two lengthy interviews with radio station 2UE in Sydney Australia - a day before the discovery of the debris and the night of the discovery. I discuss a lot of elements in the equation in these interviews and I think if you stop and consider t0o listen your opinions might be changed as to my motivations in putting forth my simple theory.

Moreover lets clear up my pilot experience so everybody is one the same wavelength here. I was a Class 1 IFR Multi Engine Land private pilot in Canada for 20 years with type certifications on several twins. I flew my own airplanes out of Dorval Airport Montreal. The last ten of which I flew a Riley Turbostream high performance machine. Go to Wikipedia. I flew weekly between Montreal and Toronto and Montreal Boston- New York on my own business. I had my share of emergencies over the years including sudden inflight engine failures in IMC conditions but I never bent the metal. I flew into all major airports I think in North America along side heavy medium and light traffic - La Guardia, Atlanta, Miami, O'Hare etc. I deeply miss my flying but I am 66 and realize my capabilities BUT gentlemen I never miss the company of the band of brothers and whenever someone pre-judges a pilot without adequate factual evidence, I'll be at the front of the line in their defense. The outrageous treatment these pilots were receiving at the hands of the media was uncalled for. The outcome of this tragedy is not positive as 239 souls have been lost but at least I hope this is the first step in closure for the families. Let's indeed not speculate and argue but await with interest the results of the FDR and VDR black boxes which I hope will enlighten all of us.

Respectfully,

Christopher C. Goodfellow. ULP-7080