[Note: this info was current back in 2015 when posted. Since I posted this, I have had notice from the Indian Govt via Public Info Act that this was NOT an Indian P8i, and info from the Pentagon via Blaine Gibson, and traded for a bottle of Sauvignon or something, that this was NOT an American P8. So much for that theory then, folks]

On 21st March, just last week, I received an email from Mike Exner (prominent member of the IG, heavily involved with the Inmarsat data number crunching, works closely with someone “high up” at ATSB, and widely acknowledged to be the reason the search is in the SIO) informing me that MH370 would have passed within a mile of me if their current thinking is correct. However I didn’t believe him, despite the convincing graphic he sent, because the altitude was still high (about 30,000 feet too high), and the time was wrong (about 30 minutes too early).

But then on Saturday 21st March we spoke on the phone for about an hour. Mike managed to disperse all the doubts I’d had about the genuineness of the data. They were reconsidering the BFOs, which are based on an assumption, on the basis that a fire event might have caused the frequency of the communication to have changed. I think I have the gist of it, but these things are all beyond me. Regardless, I trust the data now, which I have doubted for a year.

Anyway, the following day we had a conference call with Don Thompson, also of the IG; but he’s the guy that is more familiar with military craft. He pointed me the way of the Boeing P8i

Neptune (a close relative of the B737), which India has had a recent delivery of, and there would have been time for some of them to have been deployed to the Andamans to help monitor the Malacca Straits. He explained that they are a low flying, slow reconnaisance craft. And if that were the case then it would make sense that the flight profile I had witnessed (remember back to Stewart’s observation graphic) could indeed have been them checking us out: http://www.chinesedefence.com/forums/indian-defence/4627-3rd-p-8i-neptune-indian-navy-conducts-maiden-flight.html

The only thing that bothers me about this scenario is that the whole thing was glowing orange, not just the underbelly. Liz Fortuin has kindly updated her graphic to represent what I saw [although I have requested she removes the logo which I didn’t see, I will update here when I receive the corrected version]:

Now see the similarity? I can EASILY believe that what I saw was a P8i. I’m confused as to the black smoke and orange glow, but it certainly wasn’t anything like images of vortexes etc I have been sent. Who knows, maybe this new aircraft had a problem with its “novel nav strobe configuration: two red flashing nav lights mounted laterally under the wing box (normally a single centerline light)” (Don Thompson). Maybe it was on fire. Maybe, maybe, maybe.

Anyway, here is the most interesting part. Both Mike and Don seemed overly interested in whether I had seen any flights pass overhead from North to South before I saw this plane. I said no. I said I recalled flights passing East to West and West to East, but nothing on that leg. But a few days after the conversation I DID recall another thought I’d had. I remember thinking “Where the bloody hell is that going, to the South Pole?” at some stage.

[28May15, edited to add for clarity. Originally omitted due to oversight]:I DO recall seeing a normal plane, with normal nav lights pass above us from North to South prior to the glowing orange one. Wasn’t unusual, and I guess I’d put it out of my head. High altitude. Passed pretty much directly above us.

Yeah, sounds unlikely, and the Daily Mail and its readers won’t believe me, of that I’m sure. Neither will Sy Gunson. I’m gutted. “What, now she says she saw two planes? Yeah right!” I can hear them cry out.

But I know for a fact that it is possible for memories to be jolted after a long period of time by some trigger event. And tonight my thoughts untangled themselves, and I realise now that the plane I was thinking of at that moment when I had that thought was a different plane to the one I have been obsessed by for over a year now.

Because this one, the orange one, I recall thinking was going to reconnoiter with those bright lights, which I assumed were a research vessel or naval vessel… and that this was some top secret military experiment. This has all been written elsewhere – right at the very beginning on Cruisers Forum. So – it is with a sigh of relief that I finally accept that what I have been thinking for over a year was MH370, could have been, in fact, almost exactly what I thought it was. A military cargo plane with a bad exhaust.

And that the first, and normal looking, plane – up at a normal altitude with normal nav lights which I paid hardly any attention to (except for wondering where it was going – a guessing game I play with most passing planes I watch) on account of it simply not being interesting – was probably in fact MH370 on its way to the South Pole. Or thereabouts.

Thank you to all the members of the IG, and other independent investigators, who have helped me get this all straight. Finally I can drop all the nasty conspiracy theories from my head and get back to living life knowing that if MH370 can be found, at least they’re looking in the right place.