A plane that disappears off the face of the earth sounds like a movie plot, but unfortunately, in 2014 it became a reality for people traveling with Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370. Very little has been uncovered about the missing airliner in the past five years since its disappearance. Recently, though, an Australian amateur investigator believes he has discovered the missing plane…
Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370
Since its disappearance in 2014, there have been many attempts to uncover the truth behind what happened to the missing plane and its passengers. Many nations combined their efforts to try and solve the mystery by diving deep into the waters where they last received a signal from the plane…
Recovery Efforts
These plane recovery attempts and expeditions were extremely costly, time-consuming, and exhausting, and resulted in very little knowledge as to what happened. Years passed without any new evidence, however, until an Australian investigator began to look for answers in an unexpected place…
The Beginning
On March 8th, 2014, Flight 370 left Kuala Lumpur on it’s route to Beijing. There were 227 passengers and 12 crew members aboard. Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, was manning the plane.
Just Like Any Other
Shah was a very experienced pilot having flown for the airline since 1981. Flight 370 was no different from any other flight he had taken, that is until it wasn’t…
Experienced Pilots
Since Zaharie has been flying with the company since 1981, he had an astounding 18,365 hours of flying under his belt. He was extremely qualified as a pilot and was also an instructor and examiner. As was his co-pilot…
The Co-Pilot
His co-pilot, First Officer Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27, was also an experienced pilot who has been with the company since 2007. He began as a cadet and worked his way up, gaining an excellent 2,763 hours of flight. As a co-pilot, his goal was to become a pilot, and this flight was the last part of his training before the big promotion. The pilots seemed to check out, so investigators turned their search to the plane itself…
The Plane
It’s easy to place the blame on pilot error, but because the flight had two extremely experienced and respected pilots, investigators concentrated their efforts on the plane itself. This was a Boeing 777-200, a very common type of passenger plane. It’s had a great safety record ever since its introduction to the industry in 1995.
The Boeing 777-200
Since this disappearance, the Boeing 777-200’s track record has been looked into with a fine tooth comb. It turns out, 0.4% of this 777 series have crashed or been part of a bad accident. Out of the 1,412 planes Boeing produced, just six of them have been involved in an incident up until 2016 With an above average track record, at first, investigators were perplexed…
Two Horrible Accidents
Despite this apparently amazing track record, the Boeing 777-200 has been involved in two major international crises. Another jet that was heading from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down by an anti-aircraft missile by pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine, so an act of terrorism was on everyone’s minds…
Devastation
This happened on July 17th, 2014, just four months after the Flight 370 tragedy. All 298 passengers aboard perished in the attack, but outside of these two incidents, there were only four other more minor incidents with the Boeing 777-200 model. With ruling out pilot error and plane malfunction, there was something missing from the story…
The Truth
The incident with Flight 17 in Ukraine was not something within the airline’s control, but it was a horrific disaster nonetheless. As it turns out, Flight 370 had just gone through a comprehensive maintenance check a month prior to its disappearance…
Everything Seemed Normal
Flight 370 took off from Kuala Lumpur at 12:42 a.m. Captain Zaharie reached 18,000 feet and went towards the navigational waypoint. Everything was seemed normal, and nothing tipped off operators as they were monitoring the flight. They were about to get clearance to reach 35,000 feet…
Regular Communications
At 1:01 a.m., the pilot was able to confirm with Lumpur radar that they had reached the desired cruising altitude. The cockpit reached out to the Lumpur operations again to confirm they were holding altitude steady seven minutes later, at 1:08 a.m…
Eerie Last Words
Then, Captain Zaharie exchanged some final words with Lumpur radar at 1:19 a.m. The Lumpur Radio operator said, “Malaysian three-seven-zero, contact Ho Chi Minh one-two-zero decimal nine. Good night.” Captain Zaharie responded, “Good night. Malaysian three-seven-zero,” eerie last words from the disappearing flight…
One Last Signal
The prior communication was the last verbal communication from Flight 370, but not the last signal. Ho Chi Minh radar picked up the plane a minute after the last communication. The records say the plane was still at 35,000 feet, as Captain Zaharie said before, and was traveling at 542 mph. But then, it vanished…
Known Flight Path
This map depicts the bizarre flight path the plane was recorded to have made. The flight itself could still be detected but could not be communicated with. It ended up taking a right turn before reaching Vietnam, which was far off the intended path…
Vanished
At 2:22 a.m., the flight completely vanished from all radar technologies. They were 280 miles northwest of Penang Airport in Malaysia and were flying at 29,500 feet. The auto satellite system operated for some time after but also stopped at 8:19 a.m.
No Show
The plane was scheduled to land in Beijing at 5:06 a.m. It wasn’t until 7:24 a.m. that Malaysia Airlines announced its disappearance…
Telling the Families
They had to break it to many waiting families that they did not know where the plane was. There were no reports of any technical problems, no issues with weather, and no distress calls made—they were utterly in the dark…
Getting Information
Families were understandably devastated by this news, but authorities immediately went to work. They began their search where the plane was last seen, yet after two weeks nothing had been found—no wreckage, no parts, and no bodies. On March 24th, Prime Minister Najib Razak of Malaysia gave a long-awaited press conference…
At Sea
He said that the Air Accidents Investigation Branch and Inmarsat, a satellite company, had briefed him about the planes last known location. It was over the Southern Indian Ocean, far off course from where it should have been. Najib also claimed that there was no viable land in the area of the last signal, that the plane must have been in the sea…
Families Needed Answers
The families of the souls on board were desperate for answers. Months went by with no new discoveries. They were grief-stricken and still had no clue as to what had happened. People began to speculate, and conspiracy theories started to run amuck in place of actual information…
Crazy Conspiracies
People began to theorize on their own about the situation. A rumor that the pilot was responsible for a murder-suicide that caused the plane to crash began to spread. Many thought it was nuts, but with no other evidence, it was plausible…
Flight Simulator
He could have easily lost connection on purpose, but why involve all of the innocent people aboard? In 2016, two years after the disappearance, authorities found a flight simulator in Zaharie’s home. New York magazine claimed that the simulator had a similar route to the journey the fated plane took. It was interesting and nearly incriminating, but not enough to make a case…
Shot Down?
Did this flight face a similar fate to the Ukraine incident? No one thought that could be the case, but Rush Limbaugh was adamant that that is what happened. He speculated that the flight was most likely shot down and covered up. This was a wild accusation and Scott Mayerowitz of the Associated Press claimed that there was, “no evidence that Flight 370 was brought down by a government entity.” That left just one possibility…
Was It Taken Over?
There is also the possibility that the flight was hijacked. Hijacking planes is always a threat when traveling, but it’s hard to believe that someone could hijack a plane and not one of the 200 passengers would Tweet or text anything about it. It was still a popular theory, as it makes sense that hijackers would make the plane go off course like that. Others say it could have been a cyber attack, a fire on board, or even a black hole that swallowed the plane…
Wreckage Found
…But not much. There were small pieces that were found and washed ashore at different locations along the Indian Ocean coast. They never found the main body or any large or defined parts of the plane. Authorities and government officials called off the search in January 2017 with $168 million down the drain and nothing to show for it, until now…
A High-Speed Crash
Even though this happened four years ago, experts are still investigating on their own. The most recent conclusion was made in late May 2018. Aviation experts believe that the accident was actually an intentional high-speed crash. They theorized that the pilot wanted to kill himself and everyone else on board. This theory is what most people are going for, as a baffling mass murder-suicide is the only viable option until one man happened upon the remains…
Breakthrough
In March 2018, Australian mechanical engineer Peter McMahon, 64, says he found Flight 370 via Google Earth. McMahon has been an amateur aviation crash investigator for the past 25 years. He also claims to have found clear evidence of foul play. Here’s what he thinks happened…
Could it Be?
McMahon claims to have spotted the wreck just by zooming in on Google Earth in the Indian Ocean. He took some screenshots of the plane and sent them to the Australian Transport and Safety Bureau. The agency responded, “The images sent to ATSB by Mr. McMahon… were captured on 6 Nov, 2009 more than four years before the flight disappeared.” But Google Earth says this was taken via satellite 10/27/2014…
Furthering The Conspiracy
Who do you believe? It’s tough to say. McMahon has proof that the photos were taken in October of 2014, but the government entity says differently. This absolutely is set up to fuel more conspiracies, that’s for sure.