Updated

By Bill O'Reilly

Everywhere I went over the weekend people were asking me about the Malaysian jetliner that has disappeared into thin air. Pardon the pun. Even David Letterman asked me about it Friday night.

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DAVID LETTERMAN, TALK SHOW HOST: Let me ask you just about the Malaysian airplane headed to Beijing. It's a week later, poof. It's just like a David Copperfield thing. Where did it go.

O'REILLY: It looks to me. And this is speculation and it looks to me like a pilot suicide.

LETTERMAN: Really.

O'REILLY: That's what it looks like to me. There is no terror aspect because when you commit a terror act you want everybody to know so you let --

LETTERMAN: And no one really has come forward, have they?

O'REILLY: No. And the guys turned off the transponders in the plane. You have to do that manually, you have to turn them off right? So somebody did that. And it looks like that this guy then veered off and went 400 miles another direction. Well I mean he's not lost. I mean these things fly themselves. So it looks to me like a pilot suicide.

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O'REILLY: Now, as I stated, that is speculation. And I don't like to do that here on THE FACTOR. It's ok on an entertainment show. But on a news program we try to stay factual.

However, there is no question that many Americans want to hear all kinds of theories about what might have happened to the plane.

Based upon all the information we have now I can say that I believe the jet is at the bottom of the Indian Ocean. Of course, I could be wrong. We'll let our expert handle the facts in just a few moments.

The story reminds me of the John F. Kennedy Jr. plane crash. You may remember nearly 15 years ago JFK's son, his wife, and her sister disappeared off the coast of Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. The 38- year-old Kennedy was flying a light plane in fog. For days Americans tuned in to hear theory about the tragedy because no facts were known. In the end it was pilot error as the plane crashed into the Long Island Sound. Now because most of us fly at some time in our lives we often identify with air disasters because the scenario is so horrible you're helpless in the sky depending on the pilots. And it is very frustrating to cover a story like the Malaysian jet in a responsible way. But the world is engaged, there is no question about it.

And that's "The Memo."