why turn off the transponder if a plane is on fire? instinct would be s.o.s. contact passing information. >> i think that possible see is a shrinking one but i'm not willing to fully dismiss it yet. i think it's possible that they made that turn because they were dealing with some sort of emergency and were considering a divert for emergency landing and maybe in the process of that diversion they became incapacitated due to smoke or fumes and it's plausible that the plane could have continued on for a while before being further affected by fire or running out of fuel at some point. either way, ending up in the ocean, which as barry shift mentioned a couple of minutes ago, is the likeliest possibility. the whole mechanical failure fire thing, like i just said, it's a dwindling possibility but it is still there and it's certainly more plausible, meanwhile, than some of the other more fringe theorys that we've been hearing over the past couple of days.