Whitey Grandad

Hmm... If true, that's an intriguing pattern of landing strips. It was just your comment about short landings and take offs that got me thinking that they might only have been a stopover. Difficult to keep a cabinful of angry passengers quiet though, once you're on the ground. "Some of the software platform thus far is Male International Airport in Maldives, an airport owned by the United States (Diego Garcia) and three more tracks of India and Sri Lanka, all of which have a distance of 1,000 meters of runway."

That's what my adoring public call me. At least that's what I think they were shouting.

Refuelling stops?

I could be Brad Pitt

I'll take that as a yes, then. The quotes I saw said that the altitude was fluctuating but the figures given were not regarded as definitive.

I think the altitude figures are accepted to be inaccurate. Wasn't it a military radar at long range?

It's 691 miles from there to Diego Garcia and Gan International Airport is in the way at around 200 miles north of DG.

I read that they're not much good above 10,000 ft but I'm sure some would have partially worked. It's discussed here: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/18/world/asia/questions-over-absence-of-cellphone-calls-from-missing-passengers.html?_r=0

I hadn't thought of it that way, but you're right.

But they're only bottom because we keep beating them

What does it matter if there are a few thousand empty seats? As far as the club is concerned all that matters is revenue, not appearance.

That's a wonderful read, thanks.

Not bad, apart from the American spellings. And shouldn't it be 'don't care' rather than 'don't know' for the drinks? It's 50 years since my Latin O-level but wouldn't the Roman ask for a martinum?

Hmm... seems rather far-fetched but at face value I can't find a reason to discount it. The collision avoidance issue is handled in this reference, the system relies on active cooperation from the other aircraft. Why anyone would want to do this is beyond my sphere of speculation but dealing with all the passengers and keeping them quiet would not be easy. There was some reference to the plane climbing to 45,000 feet which might be to knock them out but you could just as easily do this by venting the cabin pressure. If everything had gone 'according to plan' then you would think that we would have heard by now, but if something went wrong then you wouldn't expect the perpetrators to own up to anything. There's no way that I can see anything but am unhappy ending to this, if indeed there ever is any definite conclusion. It's very sad for all the relatives and loved ones.

No need to apologise, KRG, it's a perfectly valid comment. I don't mind the passing it about amongst ourselves so much as the pass it across the back and wait for half-time that we had against Norwich. If the opposition aren't prepared to play ball and take the bait then it all becomes a rather pointless exercise. It is supposed to be an entertainment after all.

The first half on Saturday was an example of what I was referring to. There were extended periods of endless passing the ball across the back four and back again with no attempt at forward passes which made the football tediously one-dimensional, indeed some players didn't even take the time to look for a forward pass. Not at any cost, certainly, but as a minimum I believe that there should always be some intent to get the ball further up the pitch. There are times when the ball has to be passed backwards in order to look for a better angle but often this happens when there appear to be possibilities further forward. How many times this season have we been beaten when we've had much higher possession percentages and the opposition have only had two or three chances but have scored from all of them?

It's a common style of play but it doesn't half make for some boring football. Until somebody f*cks up, that is.

It doesn't sit quite right with me. Why would you want a simulator when you have the real thing? It's like having a blow-up doll when you have a gorgeous supermodel lying next to you. I would imagine.

I haven't concluded anything, nor have I excluded anything.

Shouldn't it be KFT at Christmas?

You can never really know what's going on inside someone's head.

Who knows? Perhaps he listened to our complaints and changed his interpretation, perhaps he just doesn't like Man U.

You can only really judge whether the flight simulator is relevant or not if you know how common it is for a commercial pilot to have such an installation at home. In general you'd want your employees to have some 'down time' from their work.

What does he do for Christmas?

Boruc had his own spot on MOTD2 last night. in the 2bad section they showed a selection of his kicking.