What occurred to lacking Malaysia Airways flight MH370? 5 theories evaluated

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Because the households of the 239 victims onboard the lacking Malaysia Airways jet mark ten years since they misplaced their relations, the seek for solutions continues.

On Sunday, Malaysia’s authorities stated it could renew the hunt after an American marine robotics firm that attempted to search out the airplane in 2018 proposed a recent search, increasing from the positioning it initially scoured.

The revered aviation safety professional, Philip Baum, has given The Unbiased the 5 potential eventualities that he believes are most definitely. Right here, every is evaluated.

Pilot-assisted suicide

Many individuals have targeted on the plane’s commander, Captain Zaharie Shah. He was 53 years previous when he took the controls of MH370 and departed from Kuala Lumpur, vacation spot Beijing. In his care have been 227 passengers and 11 different crew members.

A typical concept is that Captain Shah locked the primary officer out of the flight deck. He switched off the communications programs that have been designed to maintain MH370 in contact with air-traffic controllers; donned an oxygen masks; and depressurised the plane. At an altitude larger than Everest, the passengers and different crew would quickly perish from from oxygen deficiency (hypoxia).

The captain then, the speculation goes, flew the plane alongside the frontier between Thailand and Malaysia to keep away from elevating the curiosity of the navy on both facet, earlier than turning south to a location the place he believed it will by no means be discovered.

However the official report says: “There was no recognized historical past of apathy, anxiousness, or irritability. There have been no important adjustments in his way of life, interpersonal battle or household stresses.”

The primary officer was 27-year-old Fariq Abdul Hamid. He was on his first Boeing 777 mission with no coaching captain overseeing him, and had flown the plane solely 5 occasions earlier than. The investigators stated his “potential {and professional} strategy to work was reported to be good”. It appears unlikely that somebody with such restricted expertise of the plane would be capable of pull off such a plan.

Whereas sadly there have been various crashes perpetrated by suicidal pilots – most lately the tragic destruction of Germanwings flight 9525 from Barcelona to Dusseldorf, during which the primary officer killed himself and 150 others – by no means has the following crash been so delayed from the second of seizure.

Hijacking by the pilot with the intention of touchdown, surviving and escaping

Whereas it’s troublesome to search out any precedent for this concept, it’s possible that one of many pilots meant to land or ditch the plane in a survivable state however bungled it and was incapacitated by hypoxia together with the others onboard. But it’s troublesome to conceive of a potential motive for such an audacious mission.

Apart from, the investigators concluded: “There is no such thing as a proof to counsel that the PIC [pilot in command, ie captain] and FO [first officer] skilled current adjustments or difficulties in private relationships or that there have been any conflicts or issues between them.

“There had been no monetary stress or impending insolvency, current or further insurance coverage protection bought or current behavioural adjustments for the crew.”

The investigators additionally analysed each pilots’ radio conversations and say they detected “no proof of hysteria or stress”.

As well as, the ultimate report notes: “It’s not potential to deactivate computerized deployment of the masks from the cockpit.” The oxygen masks are set robotically to drop within the occasion of a extreme fall in cabin stress, which might have given the passengers and crew a while to attempt to talk with the bottom.

Hijacked by a passenger or member of cabin crew

Given the massive variety of passengers onboard, in addition to 10 cabin crew, there’s a variety of potential motives. Commonplace aviation safety measures have been in place at Kuala Lumpur Worldwide Airport. Because the tragic occasions of 9/11 confirmed, the actual fact of getting handed by means of a checkpoint doesn’t imply that the passenger poses no menace to the plane and the folks onboard.

There have been a complete of 227 passengers (together with three kids and two infants) on board, with the vast majority of them from China, adopted by Malaysia.

Two Iranian passengers have been travelling on passports stolen from an Italian and an Austrian respectively, however they seem to have been unlawful migrants who have been eager to achieve the West reasonably than harbouring any malicious intent.

All 10 members of cabin crew have been married with kids, which some have stated implies they have been unlikely to have hijacked the plane.

Hijacked remotely in a complicated act of cyberterrorism

That is the place possible theories and unfeasible conspiracy theories start to converge.

In 2003, Boeing took out a “Patent on Distant Management Take-over of Plane”, designed to foil hijack makes an attempt. “The ‘uninterruptible’ autopilot envisioned by the patent could possibly be activated, both by pilots, onboard sensors or remotely through radio or satellite tv for pc hyperlinks by the airline or authorities businesses if there have been makes an attempt to forcibly acquire management of the cockpit.

“This technique as soon as activated would disallow pilot inputs and forestall anybody onboard from interrupting the automated takeover. Thus, the personnel onboard couldn’t be compelled into finishing up the calls for of any unauthorised individual(s).”

The converse is that criminals on the bottom may be enabled by such expertise to take over the plane.

However the plane maker informed investigators: “Boeing has confirmed that it has not carried out the patented system or every other expertise to remotely pilot a industrial plane and isn’t conscious of any Boeing industrial plane that has included such expertise.”

The report concludes: “There is no such thing as a proof to help the idea that management of the plane 9M-MRO (working as MH370) might have been or was taken over remotely because the expertise was not carried out on industrial plane.”

Seized by a stowaway

May somebody have boarded the plane previous to the passengers and crew, both in a suicidal mission or with the intention of touchdown at, say, Christmas Island, 1,000 miles northwest of Western Australia?

It is a concept that Philip Baum sees as second-most possible after pilot suicide. He has demonstrated that there’s an underfloor space simply exterior the flight deck door which might conceal an individual. Such a stowaway might additionally deactivate the transponder, making the plane “disappear”.

There are numerous instances in aviation of ex-employees with a grudge focusing on airways. It’s potential that such a person was accountable. However there are a lot of arguments towards such a state of affairs, and the likelihood appears extraordinarily low.

The perpetrator would wish to have had entry to the plane earlier than it was readied for departure from Kuala Lumpur. They would wish to have overcome the cabin crew, 227 passengers and two pilots to take over the plane. And they might want to not be missed once they disappeared similtaneously MH370.

As well as, it’s troublesome to provide you with a motive. No terrorist group has provide you with a severe declare to have taken management of MH370 for political or propaganda functions.

Provided that and when the plane is discovered can these theories be examined.