The mystery of the missing plane

Saturday, 7 March 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

It is exactly one year since the Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 disappeared with 239 people on board. The Australian Government allocated $89.9 million towards searching of the plane, jointly funded by the Malaysian Government; 40% of the 60,000sq km priority search zone has been explored with no result. However, Australian Transport Safety Bureau Chief Martin Donald is still hopeful that the mystery would be solved. He was quoted by the weekend paper ‘The Sunday Times’ as saying that the search equipment and the search in terms of the area being covered is all meeting, and in some cases exceeding, their expectations. “If all goes in accordance to plan as we expect it will, we’ll complete our search by the end of May,” he had said. He had also reminded that in the 2009 case of Air France Flight 447, even though they knew where the A330 crashed in the Atlantic Ocean, it still took two years to find out.

One of aviation’s “greatest mysteries” While numerous theories have been put forward and many questions have been asked, a US aviation safety expert, Captain John Cox refuses to accept them, but he believes that the aircraft’s disappearance was no accident rather a deliberate act by someone on board the plane. According to him MH370 is already one of aviation’s “greatest mysteries”. “Never in history has a jet airliner with passengers provided so few clues after so long. Until MH370 every airline with passengers aboard has been located and the cause of the accident determined,” he says. The newspaper adds that he has reached his own theory based on the very limited evidence available, and his extensive knowledge of aircraft operations. “We can deduce that someone with specific knowledge interacted with two complex computer systems on the aeroplane – Flight Management Computer, and Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System. This level and specificity of knowledge is not common and significantly limits the potential candidates. “We can deduce that this was a deliberate act based on the precise track along the airspace border of Malaysia,” he says referring to the aircraft’s path across the Strait of Malacca after going off course. He believes the mystery will be solved because “we know where the aeroplane isn’t”. So many questions The article outlines some of the questions constantly asked as to the fate of the Boeing 777. Some of the most common ones are – Why did the plane divert so dramatically from its path in the first place? Was it in some strife? Was it a deliberate act by the pilot or first officer? Apart from these obvious questions there were others. Why didn’t Malaysia send up fighter jets to escort the plane when it stopped communicating with the Air Traffic Control (ATC) and diverted from its course? Why did it take four hours from the plane’s disappearance to be referred by ATC to Malaysian search and rescue authorities? And then there was the most confusing – How could an aircraft as sophisticated as a Boeing 777-2000ER carrying 239 people simply disappear without a trace? There was also doubt about the pilot’s role. Did Pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah mastermind a dastardly murder-suicide plot? This was dismissed as “fanciful and full of holes”. 10 theories of MH370 fate The article by National Aviation Writer Robyn Ironside lists out 10 theories of the MH370 fate: 1. Deliberate act of sabotage by pilot or co-pilot 2. On board fire/mechanical malfunction 3. Hijacking/terrorist attack – A passenger/s on board the plane overpowered the flight crew, forced into the cockpit, took control of the aircraft and flew it to a secret destination in the southern Indian Ocean. 4. Cyberjacking – taking over by ‘cyber criminals’ using advanced technologies to control the plane remotely and fly it into the southern Indian Ocean. 5. International theft – Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his special forces to “steal” the plane and take it to Kazakhistan where Russia leases an airbase. 6. Commercial sabotage – Twenty five of the passengers were employees of a defence contractor specialising in microchips. In order to reduce the stakeholders in a new design patented by the company, a plot was hatched to crash the plane. 7. Military intervention, subsequent cover-up – The American military intervened when the plane changed course, fearing it had been hijacked and was heading for Kuala Lumpur’s landmark Petronas Towers. A missile strike took down the plane and the wreckage was covertly cleaned up.

8. Landed on remote island – The pilot allegedly had on his home flight simulator a program for landing at Diego Garcia Island, a US naval base in the Indian Ocean. 9. Severe weather – Aircraft struck bad weather and the pilots lost communications. The damaged aircraft suffered a cabin depressurisation which deprived those on board of oxygen. 10. Alien abduction – Extra-terrestrials took control of the aircraft and sucked into outer space through a wormhole. Whatever is said and done, after one year, the debate still goes on.