The Unsolved Mystery of Flight MH370

The inexplicable disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370

A Routine Flight

A little after midnight on 8 March 2014, Boeing 777, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, took off. It was on a routine scheduled flight from Kuala Lumpur, destined for the Chinese capital, Beijing. There were 227 passengers on board, mostly Chinese, and 12 Malaysian Aircrew. However, the 239 people sadly never made it to their destination. The plane inexplicably disappeared on a routine flight. This sparked a whole host of conspiracy theories on what is arguably the world’s greatest mystery of recent times.

Flight MH370 took off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 00.41 am local time on 8 March. The first hour or so of the flight saw normal radio contact. However, at 01:19 am, the last voice broadcast from the flight was made by the Captain, Zaharie Ahmad Hamid. Three minutes later, the plane disappeared from the screens of air traffic control, although military radar continued to track the flight.

The tracking showed that MH370 had made a sudden U-turn, deviating from its set flight path. It was seen to fly across the Malay Peninsula and then follow a path along the Malaysia-Thai border. At 02.22 am, the plane was tracked over the Andaman Sea about 230 miles (370 km) northwest of Penang. It then flew out of range of the Malaysian’s military radar.

The Search

Confusion and misunderstanding followed. The initial search effort concentrated on the area where radio contact had ceased, just off the coast of Northeast Malaysia. That was until it was established that the military had tracked the plane to a position due west of southern Thailand. The search switched to the new position until it transpired that satellite communication company Inmarsat had a further trace on the aircraft. It showed it was still flying at 08.19 am, heading across the southern Indian Ocean. In January 2015, after a widespread investigation, the Malaysian government made an announcement on Flight MH370. They stated it accidentally crashed somewhere into the Indian Ocean after running out of fuel.

On 29 July 2015, a piece of aircraft wing was found on the shore of Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean. It was later officially identified as being part of the wreckage of the MH370 aircraft. The discovery backed up the authority’s assumption that the plane had crashed into the southern Indian Ocean. Strong ocean currents were known to carry flotsam and jetsam from the region to Reunion Island. Despite one of the most extensive and expensive searches in aviation history, nothing else of the aircraft or its contents was ever recovered.  The search for the missing plane was called off on 29 May 2018.

In November 2018, a small amount of aircraft debris was recovered by privateers that had washed up on a beach in Madagascar. Officials agreed that it is most likely from the wreck of Flight MH370. However, everyone who was on board the flight is now presumed dead. The main fear is now that the bulk of the wreckage, including the flight data recorders, will never be found.

Supposition and Conspiracy

So, just what happened to the doomed jet? Was it murder? An accident? A hijack? Predictably there are now a whole host of supposition and conspiracy theories. Some of those mooted to date, about the fate of Flight MH370, is that the plane was:

 

Hijacked and shot down by the Malaysian Government

Irish private investigator, Noel O’Gara, believes the plane was shot out of the sky. This was on the orders of the Malaysian government after it was hijacked by terrorists. Mr Gara stated he thought that the plane was lying at the bottom of the ocean. However, he didn’t rule out the possibility that it may have already been secretly moved by the Malaysian government. The investigator said he had spoken to a number of eyewitnesses who saw the plane crash out of the sky.

Oil worker Mike McKay, from New Zealand, claims he saw Flight MH370 travelling eastbound. He stated; “it appeared as if on fire when it was hit by the sunlight from the east, and then it fell away as it descended again”. Latife Dalelah, who was flying home from a Hajj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, told O’Gara, she saw the burning plane in the sea. A burning plane was also seen by Katherine Tee, whose flight was heading to Phuket in Thailand. Malaysian fishermen are reputed to have backed up the story. They claimed to have seen the wreckage of a burning plane crash into the sea just off Kota Bharu.

Shot down by a Foreign Government

Some have suggested the plane was hijacked to be used as a weapon of terrorism and was subsequently taken out by a foreign government. A similar theory was that it was carrying a potentially menacing cargo and again taken down because of the potential threat. A further claim is that the plane was shot down accidentally by another country’s air force who were on a training exercise.

Sunken though visible in shallow water

There have been a number of claims from private individuals that MH370 can be seen intact and underwater in satellite images. One unnamed believer in a conspiracy wrote on the website worldpronews.com that the plane was lying in shallow water, just off the coast of Padang in Indonesia. However, at the same time, he also suggested the possibility of it simply being a plane flying above the water.

In another similar claim, an Australian man has maintained he has found MH370 still intact and in shallow water in a Google Earth search. He is currently (2019) crowdfunding an expedition but has refused to reveal the location of the wreckage.

Crashed in the Cambodian jungle

Independent aviation expert Daniel Boyer claims the plane came down in the middle of the Cambodian jungle. Mr Boyer, came to this conclusion after scrutinising Google Maps. He insisted that blue marks found on the images were those of MH370’s jet fuselage. Mr Boyer was so confident of his claim, he sent an expedition to the alleged crash site. He thought this to be about 60 miles west of Cambodia’s capital of Phnom Penh.

Mr Boyer, later said it was unfortunate his team was unable to reach the inaccessible crash site. He stated his team members had been at risk of dehydration and possible death on their mission. However, they had at least managed to chat to locals who saw the jet fall from the sky.

Landed safely 

One of the more outlandish claims is that the plane landed at a secret airbase and that all passengers and crew are alive and well. Another similar online theory is that Captain Shah was found alive and well in Taiwan hospital but was suffering from amnesia. The Malaysian government was forced to officially dismiss the latter report as its belief began to gain momentum on the internet. Even though a few pieces of wreckage have been found, similar such claims still surface from time to time, invariably on the internet.

Cyberjacked

Historian Norman Davies believes technology developed in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks could have been used to hijack the plane. Developed to prevent a recurrence of a similar atrocity, he claims that MH370 could have been carrying sensitive information on China. This was theorised after a supposed whistle-blower leaked information about secret dossiers being covertly transported onboard the flight. He said: “it may have been carrying something somebody didn’t want to get to China”. Experts have totally repudiated such a theory.

Explosion in the cargo hold

One early theory on the plane’s disappearance was that there was an explosion or fire in the cargo hold. The official report stated that there was a huge number of lithium batteries being carried on board as freight. Speculation was rife that the batteries must be responsible for a fatal fire on board. However, investigators eventually concluded it was “highly improbable” that they had anything to do with the plane’s fate.

Subject to a ‘murder-suicide’ plot

An independent investigation into the crash concluded that it was Captain Shah, 57, who hijacked the plane. He reputedly turned it around and set it on a course over the Indian Ocean. The plane eventually ran out of fuel and crashed into the ocean as part of Shah’s carefully planned murder-suicide plot. There was a claim Shah was lonely and clinically depressed after his wife had recently left him.

The theory was that he had deliberately depressurised the cabin, killing everyone on board, just before the crash. He then proceeded to switch off the electrical system, so the plane couldn’t be tracked. Similar murder-suicide stories also circulated about the co-pilot. However, Malaysian authorities strongly denied the claims of dark plots by either the captain or his co-pilot to bring down the plane.

A mysterious passenger 

Some theorists claim a mysterious passenger was on board the plane. They supposed it was the stranger who, with outside help, took command and control of the cockpit. It was them who had then crashed the plane either on purpose or accidentally.

The official report

On 24 August 2017, the Honorary Malaysian Consul in Madagascar, Zahid Raza, who had spent a great deal of time investigating what happened to Flight MH370, was shot dead. Staff working with him on the investigation claimed he had received death threats and were convinced he was deliberately targeted. American lawyer and amateur investigator, Blaine Gibson, claimed that the murder took place in an effort to hinder the investigation into the plane’s disappearance.

The official 1500 page report, which was published by the Malaysian government on June 30 2018, was called a ‘cover-up’ by independent aviation experts and investigators. The report stated that government investigators did not know what happened to the plane but “unlawful interference by a third party” could not be ruled out. The report dismissed the theory that the plane was brought down by the captain in a murder-suicide mission. It also ruled out mechanical failure as a cause.

Almost all families of those who were on board the fateful Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 have expressed anger at the lack of answers.

 

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