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The Disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

One of the greatest aviation mysteries

By Cynthia VaradyPublished 3 years ago Updated 2 years ago 9 min read
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On March 18, 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was scheduled to depart Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 12:35 a.m. and arrive at Beijing Capital International Airport at 6:30 a.m. The aircraft never arrived. Nearly a decade later, we still don't know what happened to MH370 or the circumstances behind its disappearance, but theories abound. Was there a mass-murder-suicide plot, a hijacking, or an onboard fire? Its disappearance remains one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history.

The Aircraft, Crew, and Passengers

MH370 was an 11-year-old Boeing 777 operated by Malaysia Airlines, and its route was one of two daily flights by the airline. The scheduled flight time was five hours and 34 minutes but carried enough fuel to remain airborne for 7 hours and 41 minutes, allowing for any detours that might occur in the event of an emergency (passenger and crew illness or equipment malfunction, etc.). Furthermore, the aircraft in question had never experienced any operational issues and was in fine flying form. Thus, there was no reason for anyone to expect MH370 not to arrive at its destination.

The crew consisted of 12 people, all of which were Malaysian citizens. The captain was 53-year-old Zaharie Ahmad Shah, who joined Malaysia Air in 1981 and had 18,000 hours of flight experience. Shah's co-pilot was 27-year-old Fariq Abdul Hamid, who joined the airline in 2007 and had 2,700 hours of flight time. In addition to the crew, 227 passengers from eight countries were aboard.

Malaysia Flight 370's Path

The flight departed at 12:42 a.m., slightly later than scheduled, and air traffic control cleared it to climb to 18,000 feet. Voice analysis confirms that first officer Hamid communicated with control before the flight took off and that Captain Shah spoke with them shortly after takeoff.

The flight continued on its designated route until 1:06 a.m., when it sent its last automated positioning report. At 1:19 a.m., the last verbal transmission with the flight crew took place. At that time, Kuala Lumpur contacted the cockpit telling the crew to transfer over to Beijing airspace: "Malaysian three seven zero, contact Ho Chi Mihn one two zero decimal nine. Good night." This communication was answered by Captain Shah when he said, "Good night. Malaysian three seven zero."

At this time, the plane was over the Gulf of Thailand on its scheduled path, but then three minutes after the last verbal contact at 2:21 a.m., MH370 disappeared from both the radar at Kuala Lumpur and Ho Chi Minh. This means that the transponder on the flight was no longer working. However, while civilian radar had lost MH370's location, Malaysian military radar tracked the flight for a while longer. Here's where it gets crazy.

Uh, What?

For some reason, the aircraft deviated from its assigned route and began to turn right, then made a sudden left turn into a south-westerly direction (its designated flight path had been to the northeast). It now headed back over the Malay Peninsula, fluctuating a few thousand feet in altitude. At 1:52 a.m., the military radar detected MH370 just south of Penang Island, where it took another turn and flew over the Strait of Malacca in a north-westerly direction. The last known location of MH370 was over the Andaman Sea at 2:22 a.m., which was the limit of the Malaysian Military radar. However, the aircraft continued to give hourly automated satellite communications.

Map of the flight path of MH370. (Left) Arc of last satellite contact and location of a supposed signal from the flight recorder. (Right) The known flight path of MH370, depicting the last radar ping and last contact with Thai and Malaysian radar. Image: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc./Kenny Chmielewski

Satellite Data Analysis

Based on analysis from compiled data, MH370 took another inexplicable turn and began heading south, where it continued in a straight line for over five hours. The whole time the flight made hourly pings called "handshakes" off satellites run by the company Inmarsat. This communication was a whisper since all electronics inside the plane had been switched off, including in-flight entertainment, cockpit texts, and automated maintenance reports. At 2:39 a.m., a call was made to the cockpit but went unanswered by the crew. Over 4 hours later, at 7:13 a.m., another call was made. Again it went unanswered.

By 7:24 a.m., the aircraft was officially an hour late for its scheduled arrival in Beijing, yet, via satellite handshakes, we know it was still airborne. The Malaysian Government announced that they had lost contact with the flight and had mobilized search and rescue operations. Yet, unknown to the Malayan Government, MH370 was still flying.

The last satellite communication took place at 8:19 a.m. This communication was a login request sent by the aircraft to the Inmarsat satellite. This would have happened in the event of a software or a power failure. At this point, the plane had flown for 7 hours and 38 minutes, nearing the end of its fuel supply.

Inmarsat sent another position request to the flight at 9:15 a.m., but it went unanswered. Based on this information, it is believed that flight MH370 crashed in the Indian Ocean sometime between 8:19 and 9:15 a.m., several thousand kilometers off the coast of Australia, but where exactly this happened remains a mystery.

The Search

The search of the plane and the 239 people on board happened immediately. Initially, the investigation focused on the South China Sea, where the Malaysian Government stated the aircraft had gone down. Then, to add to the cluster, the Malaysian Government, which happened to be one of the most corrupt, didn't tell anyone about the actual flight path until it was leaked by The Wall Street Journal a week later. Only then did the search shift to the Indian Ocean. Had the search shifted as soon as it was known where MH370 had crashed, search and rescue may have discovered debris that could have pointed to the plane's exact location and what had transpired onboard through examining the black box.

Between March 18 and April 28, 19 ships, 345 sorties, and military aircraft searched over 4.6 million square kilometers of open ocean and found nothing.

A sonar search of the seafloor was conducted 3,000 km west of Perth, Australia, and detected several acoustic pings that may have been MH370's flight recorder or black box. The location of the pings matched up with Inmarsat's data of the plane's flight path. Submarines searched the area but turned up nothing.

The First Signs of Debris

For over the following year, zero clues surfaced about what transpired with MH370. Then, in July 2015, a piece of wreckage washed up on the shore of Reunion, an island off the coast of Madagascar, 4,000 km west of the search area in the Indian Ocean.

The piece, a wing flaperon, was confirmed to have come from MH370, which showed that the crew hadn't extended the landing flaps before the plane crashed, which means the aircraft was in an uncontrolled vertical nose dive when it entered the ocean. The force of impact would have shredded the aircraft into a million pieces.

Traveler Blane Gibson discovered more pieces of wreckage scattered across Africa's east coast. Gibson made it his mission to help find out what happened to MH370. But by January 17, 2017, almost three years after the pane vanished, the official search was suspended. Yet, the governments of Australia, Malaysia, and China continued the search operations, making it one of the most expensive searches in aviation history, costing upwards of $155-million.

In January 2018, Ocean Infinity, a private US company, continued the search pro bono, although they would have received $70-million if they had found the plane. However, three months later, after searching a 33,000 km area, they found no sign of MH370.

Hijacking Theory

We are pretty sure of the flight path, be we have no idea why. The first theory was a possible hijacking by two Iranian passengers flying with stolen passports, purchased one-way tickets, and entered Malaysia a week before the flight. An investigation proved that both men were alyssum seekers.

No terrorist or governmental groups have ever claimed responsibility for the missing flight, so it was unlikely hijacked.

A woman writing on a message board for Malaysia Airlines flight 370. Image: © Ahmad Faizal Yahya/Shutterstock.com

Possible Crew Hijacking?

There remains a lot of suspicion over Captain Shah, but no conclusive evidence links him to the flight's disappearance. From what little information can be gleaned from the data reported to the satellite, it is unknown whether MH370 remained under the captain's command for the entire fight, but it likely crashed into the sea out of control.

The Malaysian govt conducted over 170 interviews with the crews' family and friends and found nothing linking them to anything nefarious.

If the crew or pilots caused the incident, their motivation remains a mystery. The Australian Transportation Authority rejects that Shah crashed the plane deliberately because they believe he would have been unconscious in the flight's final moments. However, this doesn't discount how the aircraft came to be so far off course.

When the flight took the sudden turn south, American Intelligence believes that someone in the cockpit manually reprogrammed the aircraft's autopilot to take that turn.

Also, remember the transponder? Authorities speculate that it stopped working because someone on the flight manually turned it off. However, there is still zero evidence to support this.

Other theories range from the plane getting sucked into a black hole to being abducted by aliens. Another theory speculates that the plane was hijacked remotely by cyber terrorists, but Boeing has denounced this idea as impossible.

Fire-hypoxia Theory

This last theory states that a fire started somewhere on board while en route to Beijing. Based on satellite communication data, the pilots may have wanted to return to Malaysia for an emergency landing at a nearby airport. A power interruption mid-flight may have been responsible for a fire. Investigators ruled out an engine issue. Perhaps someone inside the plane switched off the electrical system to stop a fire, but experts are unsure that this would have worked.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau concluded that an unresponsive flight crew due to sudden cabin decompression was the most likely explanation for why the plane flew in one direction for over five hours across the Indian Ocean. The whole crew may have been unresponsive from around mid-flight to when it crashed into the ocean.

MH370 flew at around 30,000 -33,000 feet while over the Indian Ocean. This elevation is well above where life can sustain itself due to a lack of oxygen. Hypoxia occurs when the brain isn't getting the oxygen it needs to operate. The first signs of hypoxia are confusion, restlessness, and shortness of breath. If the cabin lost pressure midway through the flight, it stands to reason that the crew may have exhibited some pretty strange behavior, like changing the flight path. By the time the plane crashed, it would have been filled with dead people.

Mass Murder Theory

A few aviation experts believe that Captain Shah caused the decompression event, knocking out the rest of the crew and passengers before rerouting the flight over the Indian Ocean to crash the plane in a mass murder-suicide plot. However, this is still speculation, and we will probably never know what happened to Malaysian Flight 370 or why.

One other strange component to this story is a mysterious package. After MH370 took off, a 200-pound piece of cargo was added to the manifest. The plane was carrying too much weight and was possibly unbalanced. Could this cargo have anything to do with what happened after the plane took off?

Australia, Malaysia, and China agreed that an official search would resume if credible evidence emerged regarding the plane's location.

References

"What Happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370?" YouTube uploaded by RealLifeLore, 18, December 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_yR7uz2ftE.

Gregersen, Erik. "Malaysia Airlines flight 370 disappearance." Encyclopedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/event/Malaysia-Airlines-flight-17.

Langewiesche, William. "What Really Happened to Malaysia's Missing Airplane." The Atlantic, July 2019 https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/07/mh370-malaysia-airlines/590653/

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About the Creator

Cynthia Varady

Aspiring novelist and award-winning short story writer. Hangs at Twtich & Patreon with AllThatGlittersIsProse. Cynthia resides in Portland, Oregon, with her husband, son, & kitties. She/Her

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