On
March 8, 2014, 227 passengers from 15 different nations boarded Malaysian
Flight 370 scheduled to fly from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing (Alfred). But the
six-hour flight became a two and a half year ongoing search for the plane and
all of its passengers. The lack of any physical evidence from its supposed
crash in an unknown location in the southern Indian Ocean has caused several
conspiracy theories to arise surrounding the mysterious disappearance:
1. Was the flight management system
electronically hijacked?
2. Did Pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah
deliberately crash the plane?
3. Was there an equipment failure onboard
the plane?
Each
conspiracy theory of the missing Malaysian Flight will be explored with the
most plausible explanation being equipment failure onboard the plane.
Character Analysis
Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah was
supposedly a family man and veteran pilot who enjoyed making YouTube tutorials
about flight simulators. He became a pilot of Malaysian Airlines in 1981 and
had over 18,000 flight hours (BBC News). After the MH370 flight went missing,
investigators had to look deeper into his private life to find any clues that
may reveal why the Boeing Flight 777 managed to disappear without a trace. Many
details on Captain Shah’s life show that he may have experienced internal and
external conflicts that could have played a part on this tragic event.
According to many close friends and
relatives, Shah was “a very nice guy, passionate about aviation, and among the
community of pilots, one of the most respected” (Semple). He was praised for
his professionalism and was seen as “somewhat of a mentor” to the younger
pilots (1). Shah was very interested into flight simulation and had the skills
to actually build one that modeled the Boeing 777 that he flew. He uploaded
tutorials on how to use the different parts of flight simulators as well as
“Do-It-Yourself” home repair videos. He was also known to be a talented cook
and fisherman among his friends and was proud of his work within the aviation
industry (BBC News). All of his characteristics seem to show that he was a
typical family man who loved his job and community, but internal factors may
have played a role the MH370’s sudden, mysterious disappearance.
Several reports, have said that
Captain Zaharie was experiencing marriage troubles with his wife. His marriage
seemed to have been falling apart, and this could have caused him to be
emotionally and mentally unstable during his last flight. According to an
article written by BBC News, “his wife and children moved out of the family
home the night before the flight, after his wife told him she was leaving him”
(BBC News). A friend of Zaharie also stated that “he had been terribly upset of
the relationship troubles” (1). If the pilot had been experiencing these
problems within his home, he may have been unable to think clearly for the
safety of his crew and passengers, and he could have deliberately flown off
course and caused the tragedy that left no survivors.
Captain Zaharie’s increased
involvement with Malaysian politics in the recent years also could have created
external conflicts that played a role in the incident. Zaharie joined the
People’s Justice Party in 2013 that was led by Anwar Ibrahim, a party that is
in opposition with the current constitutional monarchy of the country and is
pushing towards a democratic government (Semple). Revelations were made on
Zaharie’s relationship with Ibrahim and it was discovered that he was actually
related to Ibrahim’s son’s in-laws (BBC News). It was reported that hours
before the MH370 flight took off, Ibrahim was given a jail sentence of five
years, a move that was most likely politically motivated (1). This conflict
could have been a factor in Zaharie’s ability to pilot the aircraft. It also
could have given him a motive to fly in an alternate route and crash the plane,
whether it was because he wanted to oppose the national government in support
of his party or draw attention towards Malaysia’s political issues. Either way,
events within his life could have had a major effect on the fate of the flight
that night.
Many close friends and relatives of
Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah saw him as an “aviation geek” who was a veteran to
flying and had a passion for cooking and spending time with his children
(Semple). He was known to bring his work home into his daily life because he
enjoyed teaching others about flight simulators, but mixing the details of his
private life into his work could have been the causes of the mysterious
disaster that led to his and 227 other deaths on the night of March 8, 2014.
Conspiracy Descriptions
(Main Idea and Details with Survey Results)
In the flight disappearance of Malaysian
Flight MH370, three conspiracy theories are highlighted. One of those theories
suggests that the plane experienced a hijacking incident from a knowledgeable
suspect, another theory involves Captain Shah’s deliberate role in the disappearance,
while the third theory discusses a possible mechanical failure onboard the
plane.
The first conspiracy theory proposes
that someone electronically hijacked the flight management system onboard. The
Russians, specifically, have been blamed by many for the possible hijack theory
due to their “advanced knowledge in the aviation industry [that] would have
[given] them the know-how to alter the data” (Dassanayake). Russia is
notoriously known for their capability to hack into their enemies’ private systems
and leak highly sensitive material, so the possibility that a passenger onboard
tampered with the plane’s data system could be likely. Aviation expert Jeff
Wise explains that, “three Russians were onboard MH370- with one just a few
feet away from the area they needed to access to tamper with flight data” (1).
He continues to tell us that the passenger sitting in first class was “15 feet
away from the aircraft’s electronic-and-equipment bay, [and] using this could
have changed the plane’s flight data, [giving] access to its satellite
transmissions and could even take over the flight controls” (1). This evidence
definitely raises the question of the potential role a person, or group of
intelligent cyber attackers, played in the strange disappearance of the
Malaysian airplane. But in order for this sophisticated operation to have taken
place “it would almost certainly need state-level backing” (Phillips), and
Russia has not stepped forward to claim their role in the incident. Wise has
admitted that he has no idea, “why, exactly, would Vladimir Putin want to steal
a Malaysian passenger plane” (1).
The second conspiracy theory
suggests that Captain Zaharie Shah played an important role in deliberately
crashing the plane in an unknown location in the ocean. It has been surfaced
that he had been experiencing relationship troubles with his wife, and her and
their children moved out of the house the night before the tragic flight (BBC
News). Experiencing emotional instability, Shah could have not been in an appropriate
state of mind for flying that night, and that could have caused errors in
judgment on his part. After the flight went missing, investigators searched his
home and retrieved his flight simulator to see if they could find any clues as
to where the flight could have gone. The simulator showed that Shah mapped out
a course “to the Southern Indian Ocean, where the missing jet is believed to
have crashed,” but to investigators, this is not convincing evidence that the
pilot had any intention on crashing the plane because he could have simulated
any route for the purpose to training and practice to handle different flight
paths (CBS/AP). After months of digging deeper into the flight simulator’s data
system, the FBI finally stated that they have “found nothing suspicious
whatsoever,” so another dead end had been reached in the expansive search for
the flight (Thomas). There is currently not enough convincing evidence to
support the theory that Captain Shah purposely doomed his flight on the night
of March 8th because if we were to crash the plane for a specific
purpose, it would have been logical to leave a suicide note or more evidence
for others to find his motives.
A survey of twenty people revealed that
55% agree that the pilot did not deliberately crash the plane into the ocean.
Many who say that the pilot did not intentionally steer the plane off course
because it has been over two years since the plane disappeared, and no evidence
has been found that support this theory. They also say that there is also no
evidence of a suicide note left by the pilot and that there is no credible
evidence in his background that seems unusual or out of place. To his friends
and family, he was a caring man who loved his job and had a passion to cook, so
it is hard to believe that he deliberately flew his plane into the bottom of
the ocean.
The last conspiracy theory suggests
that the plane experienced some kind of equipment failure that doomed every
person on the flight. Christina Negroni, an aviation journalist, proposed a
theory that Zaharie stepped out of the cockpit to take a bathroom break, and
that is when disaster struck (Sanderson). During his bathroom break, “an
explosive decompression sucked the air out of the jet’s cabin” and “it could
have happened in a number of ways – from structural flaws in the plane to
faulty cabin door seals” (1). With this decompression of the air within the
plane, the lack of oxygen would have distorted the pilot’s sense of logical and
rational thinking, leaving only minutes to react to the horror. Experiencing
oxygen deprivation, Zegroni believes he could not have regained control of the
plane, and his ability to keep the plane on its intended course was long gone,
which explains the plane’s bizarre flight path taken in the hours before its
disappearance (1). Equipment failure is the most credible theory because
“Investigators have found no evidence that the plane was hijacked or sabotaged.
And Zegroni sees no credible evidence that the pilot was suicidal” (1).
Something must have gone wrong onboard the
plane that night, and if the plane was not sabotaged by a passenger or pilot,
there must have been equipment failure that caused the mysterious disappearance
of Flight MH370. Currently, the families of the missing passengers and volunteering
nations are working together to fund ongoing searches for any clues or signs of
debris from the flight.
Conclusion
On the night of March 8, 2014, 227
passengers boarded Malaysian Flight MH370 not knowing that they would never
return home. The tragic disappearance of the flight led to three conspiracy
theories:
1. Was the flight management system
electronically hijacked?
2. Did Pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah
deliberately crash the plane?
3. Was there an equipment failure onboard
the plane?
The mystery of what happened to the MH370
remains unknown, and the deep oceans are still being searched for any evidence
that could tell us what happened on that mysterious night.
Works Cited
Alfred, Charlotte.
"Where Is MH370? What We Know One Year Later." The Huffington Post.
TheHuffingtonPost.com, 3 May 2015. Web. 26 Sept. 2016.
Board, Editorial.
"Will the Mystery of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Ever Be Solved?" Chicagotribune.com.
N.p., 01 Aug. 2016. Web. 26 Sept. 2016.
CBS/AP.
"Malaysia Confirms Flight 370 Pilot Plotted Fatal
Route." CBSNews. CBS Interactive, 5 Aug. 2016. Web. 15 Nov. 2016.
Dassanayake, Dion.
"Missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 Was 'hijacked by Russians', Claims
Aviation Expert." Expresscouk World RSS. Express Newspapers, 18
Mar. 2015. Web. 14 Nov. 2016.
Phillips, Jack. "Malaysia Airlines Flight
370: Missing Plane Hijacked by Three Russians, Claims Author." The Epoch Times Malaysia Airlines
Flight 370 Missing Plane Hijacked by Three Russians Claims Author Comments.
Epoch Times, 24 June 2015. Web. 14 Nov. 2016
News,
BBC. "Who Are the Pilots of Flight MH370?" BBC News. BBC News,
27 Mar. 2014. Web. 23 Oct. 2016
Sanderson,
Bill. "How a Bathroom Break Could Have Doomed Flight MH370." New
York Post. NYP Holdings, Inc., 15 Oct. 2016. Web. 16 Nov. 2016.
Semple,
Kirk. "Pilots Possible Role in Flight 370 Vanishing Unthinkable By
Friends." The New York Times. The New York Times, 17 Mar. 2014. Web.
23 Oct. 2016.
Thomas,
Pierre. "FBI Finishes Probe into Malaysia Airlines Captain's Flight
Simulator." ABC News. ABC News Network, 02 Apr. 2014. Web. 15 Nov.
2016.
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