What happened to flight MH370 and when did the Malaysia Airlines plane disappear? – The sun
MALAYSIA Airlines Flight 370 shocked the world when it mysteriously disappeared without a trace.
Despite undergoing the most expensive underwater search in history, the families of those on board are no closer to understanding what happened.
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What happened to flight MH370?
Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 departed from Kuala Lumpur and was heading to Beijing with 239 people on board, but it never reached its destination.
There was a group among the passengers Chinese calligraphers, a couple heading home to their sons after a long-delayed honeymoon, and a construction worker who hadn’t been home in a year.
But at 12:14 pm on March 8, 2014, Malaysia airlines lost contact with MH370 near the island of Phuket in the Strait of Malacca.
Previously, Malaysian authorities believed that the last words heard from the aircraft, either from the pilot or co-pilot, were “Good night Malaysian three seven zero”.
Landing in the north
Early theories focused on the idea that the plane had flown north to Central Asia.
Although this idea has been discredited, it had some validity at the time because of the trajectory that military radar took.
MH370 started on a north-easterly route, then turned and flew south-west and then turned again, heading north-west towards India.
The possibility of a northern landing was refuted by satellite company Inmarsat, owner of the satellite that tracked him.
The idea was further discredited when parts of the plane washed up off the coast of Africa.
‘Mass hypoxia’
After debris from the aircraft was discovered on beaches in East Africa, it was concluded that MH370 had crashed somewhere in the South Indian Ocean near Western Australia.
This theory speculates that an accident or malfunction occurred before the plane crashed, causing the plane to change direction in an attempt to find a place to land.
The accident would be a “mass hypoxia event” – a sudden one loss of oxygen – which took out the crew and passengers before they could land.
The plane would then continue flying on autopilot until the fuel ran out.
This theory is supported by the Malaysian government and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB).
An intentional act
There are countless variations on this rather wild conspiracy theory, but most of them focus on this Captain Zaharie deliberately crashes the planeor as part of something bizarre murder-suicide.
There has never been any evidence that Zaharie deliberately diverted the plane.
Fuel was added to the fire based on this theory when it was discovered that the pilot had a flight simulator in his basement and had practiced this particular flight before the event.
His family said he “loved life” and had an impeccable flying record.
The latest variation on this idea was put forward by the Independent Group, which believes the pilot the flight rose to 40,000 feet so that the plane would depressurize and the passengers would slowly die of suffocation before he crashed it into the Indian Ocean.
‘Priority zone’
The ATSB’s 2017 final report put forward two theories.
The first merely repeated the unconscious pilot’s theory, but added that the plane had entered the water at a “high and increasing rate of descent”, meaning it was in free fall.
The second was that a small new area called the “priority zone” may have been the plane’s final location.
This 15,000-square-mile area was just north of where their own search had failed to find the plane.
Controlled emergency landing on water by conscious pilot
The American company Ocean Infinity searched this ‘priority zone’ in 2018, but found nothing and even searched further north, but still failed to find MH370.
That inability to find anything led to a reconsideration of what might have happened.
Some thought the pilot was conscious and had performed a “controlled ditching” after floating the plane for as long as possible.
If that were the case, it would mean that the plane could have crashed about 200 km further than thought.
This was rejected by the ATSB, who pointed to data indicating the aircraft was in a “high and increasing rate of descent” in its final moments.
‘Mysterious Woman’
New investigative series MH370: The Untold Story claimed a “mysterious woman” could unlock the secrets of the missing flight.
The documentary claimed that they identified a lady who sent a message to a man on board just two days before the plane disappeared.
This came after authorities first investigated in 2014 a mystery woman who made a two-minute phone call to Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah shortly before the plane’s takeoff, using a prepaid SIM card.
The SIM card was obtained under a false identity.
Co-pilot locked out
The captain of MH370 locked the co-pilot out of the cockpit and crashed the plane in a murder-suicide, it was reported in 2019.
It was a claim made by fellow pilot and lifelong friend of Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, who was in command of the Boeing 777 the night it disappeared.
He reluctantly concluded that Zaharie had deliberately crashed the plane.
The pilot said that as a senior officer and examiner, it would have been easy to lead co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27, out of the cockpit and then lock the door.
All he had to say was, ‘Go check something in the cabin,’ and the man would have been gone.”
The unnamed pilot told The Atlantic
The fellow pilot speculated that Shah’s mental state could have been a factor in his decision.
He added: “Zaharie’s marriage was bad.
“In the past he slept with some flight attendants.”
Who were the pilot and co-pilot?
Malaysian captain Zaharie Amad Shah was flying MH370 when it disappeared.
Born on July 31, 1961, Shah was described as an experienced pilot who joined Malaysia Airlines in 1981.
Shah, a father of three, passionate chef and avid fisherman, lived with his wife in a luxurious gated community where he reportedly built his own flight simulator.
In the aftermath of the plane’s disappearance, rumors surfaced that his wife had moved out of their home.
The co-pilot was Fariq Abdul Hamid27, who was on his first flight on a 777 as a fully cleared first officer.
He had flown five times before under the supervision of a ‘check co-pilot’.
But he had 2,763 hours of experience flying other jets before moving to the larger plane.
Fariq was reportedly planning to marry his girlfriend.
What’s the latest?
On March 4, 2024, Malaysia said it was prepared reopen an investigation if there is compelling new evidence, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said.
“I don’t think it’s a technical issue. It is an issue that affects people’s lives and whatever needs to be done must be done,” Ibrahim said.
His comments came as the families commemorated the 10th anniversary of the plane’s disappearance.
In February 2022, a major breakthrough was made to discover the exact point at which the plane might have crashed.
The investigation resumed following a report from British aerospace engineer Richard Godfrey.
As reported by the BBCHe said: “No one had previously thought of combining Inmersat satellite data with Boeing performance data, with oceanographic data on floating debris slides and with WSPR grid data.”
This new technology allowed Godfrey to apply it “with confidence” to MH370 and figure out where the plane might have landed.
Godfrey concluded that the plane is located 1,200 miles west of Perth, Australia, at the bottom of what is known as Broken Ridge, an underwater plateau with a volcano and canyons in the southeastern Indian Ocean.
Godfrey agreed with Captain Shah’s theory about deliberately crashing the plane.
He told Australia 7News how he believes the crash was a form of “hijacking” and an “act of terrorism”.
He said the pilot “decided to divert his plane and make it disappear in one of the most remote places in the world.”
Has the engine been found?
Five pieces, probably from the plane, washed up in Madagascar.
Aviation expert Victor Iannello believes one fragment, which appears to have come from the interior floorboard, is consistent with a “high-speed impact.”
More than 30 pieces of aircraft debris have been collected from various locations around the world, but only three wing fragments washed up along the Indian Ocean have been confirmed to be from MH370.
In October 2018, an investigator claimed so saw a motorcycle in the Cambodian jungle.
Daniel Boyer claimed to have found it earlier the cockpit and the tailcomplete with Malaysia Airlines logo, of the missing aircraft.
Boyer told the Daily star online that the dimensions of the blurred image perfectly matched those of the engine, namely 4.3 meters wide and 2.7 meters long.
Boyer’s discovery built on the work of Briton Ian Wilson, who first found an image of the plane on Google Maps.
More recently, however, an MH370 tracker has claimed that locals in Cambodia told him they had seen a plane believed to be the doomed Malaysia Airlines flight crashing in the jungle.
And author Jeff Wise claims to have found evidence that the satellite communications systems were turned back on 40 minutes later “got dark”which complicates the mystery.
In February 2021Wreck hunter Blaine Gibson believed a piece of debris, believed to be from a Malaysian 777, came ashore on a South African beach near Port Elizabeth.
He believes it may be part of a spoiler wing panel used to reduce lift.
The many theories that have emerged about the doomed flight have made the trauma of the ordeal much worse for the passengers’ families, who will seemingly never get the closure they need for their loved ones.