The airliner may be somewhere in Central Asia, near the Chinese-Kyrgyz border. This is the area of the ethnic Uyghur minority.

A couple weeks ago, Uyghur terrorists killed 29 people at a train station Xinjiang.

The 777 is capable of landing on small airstrips, and unimproved surfaces such as dirt roads. Curiouser and curiouser.

Onward and upward,
airforce