Malaysian Flight 370 by Trey Ynfante

      Imagine saying goodbye to your family member or loved one before they went to the airport, but you didn’t know it would be the last time you would see them because their entire plane would disappear. That’s what happened to the victims of the Malaysian Flight 370 on March 8, 2014. With this mysterious flight disappearing with little or no evidence of a crash, naturally, people want to find answers, and they start coming up with different conspiracy theories as to why the flight disappeared. The major ones are the Diego Garcia Theory, the plane was hijacked electronically, and that the crew had planned a suicide mission. Each one of these theories contains valid information that explains how the plane could have disappeared.

Character Analysis

Who is Captain Zaharie Shah? He was a 53-year-old veteran pilot of Malaysian Flight 370, but veteran pilot is an understatement when describing him. He had 18,365 hours of flying experience, and knew the plane better than any of his other colleges (Moran). Zaharie was from Penang, Malaysia and showed his true “hometown humbleness” when it was reported that “Shah was a keen creative amateur chef who created Malaysian food which, according to the author of a dedication page, he shared ‘for those around him just like a true Malaysian and Penangite’"(Shears). He was a husband of two kids, one boy and one girl. When you search up a picture of him you will always see him smiling or with his kids because he was a caring family man. Although he was a fairly content man he still had some emotional troubles.

Shah dealt with some external struggles. His marriage wasn’t perfect for long, because it soon started to fall apart. A fellow pilot and longtime friend reported to the New Zealand Herald Newspaper that “Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah's world was crumbling… He had been facing serious family problems, including separation from his wife and relationship problems with another woman he was seeing” (Herald). This caused him to start acting out of character and displaying traits he otherwise wouldn't.

            Another woman came forward with statements that defended Shah. Her name was Fatima Pardi; she was a mother of 3, and another close friend of Shah who stated that he was a caregiving individual who she could never see putting the lives of all the passengers in danger. She reported to The Australian "We talked about family, we talked about interests and that's how he got close with me and my children. He always came to my house and brought things for the kids....toys, food. He always encouraged me to look after my children. Sometimes having a disabled child makes you so sad because you can't do anything for your child, but he gave me advice and inner strength." Pardi wanted it to be clear that Shah was a good man, and that she could not see him jeopardizing the lives of the passengers on that flight. Pardi also wasn’t the alleged women Shah was having an affair with. They talked but she stated “I don't believe that he loved me. I believe that he loved my children,” and according to the reports “the two had exchanged messages on WhatsApp just two days prior to the tragedy and Pardi has declined to reveal the contents of the message, saying it was a ‘private’ issue between them. That last conversation was just between me and him. I don't want to talk about it" (Roy). She didn’t want to surface the information initially because of the attention she would get just for having some type of relationship to Captain Zaharie. Even with other individuals defending his genuine nature there’s still speculations on what he could have been dealing with on an emotional level and how that could have affected him.

He then started dealing with internal struggles. Because of the divorce, the feeling of depression can take over and cause emotional turmoil. Splitting up in a relationship not only causes depression, it also causes other emotional troubles. Research concluded that “People who undergo divorce face a variety of psychological issues including increased stress, lower life satisfaction, depression, increased medical visits, and an overall increase in mortality risk compared to those who remain married” (Vitelli). This gives insight on what Shah could have been dealing with prior to the flight.

Captain Zarahrie Shah was still seen as a steady minded man. For people to view the caring, compassionate, family centered guy, as emotional unstable is still difficult for them to grasp. He wasn’t the type of guy to go out of his way to put others in danger. Especially when it came to the 239 passengers the flight was carrying. He cared deeply for his work and loved what he did. Therefore, for him to suddenly risk everything he had and what he was known for simply wasn’t in his character.

Main Ideas/Theories

There are numerous amounts of theories as to why the Malaysian Flight 370 disappeared. But there are some theories that are more popular and more widely accepted than others. Theories such as the Diego Garcia theory.

The Diego Garcia Theory is based on the possibility that the plane was captured and kept under radar. Diego Garcia is the name of the island that is home to a US Naval Base. This base is used to gather intelligence using radar technology. This technology is very advanced; an article states “The US has a state of the art spy satellite system, with very precise capabilities of monitoring the earth's surface, including moving objects. These technologies are part of the United States Space Surveillance Network. The Diego Garcia base is one of only a handful of locations equipped with a Ground-based Electro-Optical Deep Space Surveillance system for tracking objects in deep space" (Garrison). With this, the plane could easily be picked up on the radar miles before it got near the island and captured before and signal could get out of the plane missing.

Furthermore, an American passenger named Phillip Wood allegedly “transmitted a message and picture from Diego Garcia” and this information is possible because “the coordinates, taken from the ‘Image Exif data’ clearly showed that the transmission came from Diego Garcia” (Garrison). And Image Exif data gives specific information about a picture including the coordinates it could be taken from. The Exif data cannot be changed only deleted therefore backing this theory up with more solid evidence. 

There are some faults that go along with this theory. One of them being that the charge on his phone not being able to last that long. Similarly, how could Phillip be able to hide and take a picture during his time of supposed captivity? If he was captured, you would think he would be more restricted, and not able to take the picture in the first place.

There is another theory that suggests a hijacking. There are several hijacking theories, but this one seems to be the most popular. It speculates that the plane was hijacked by the electronics bay of the plane. The electronics and equipment bay is one of the powerhouses of the plane. The author states “If they would have access to equipment that could be used to change the [frequency] value of its satellite transmissions. They could even take over the flight controls” (Goglina). By changing the satellite transmissions, the hijackers could’ve made the plane give out frequencies in another place or give no frequencies at all.

This theory is hard to accept because of the different points that disprove the theory. For one, the electronics bay is very hard to access because it’s usually located below the plane. It’s a part of a plane that requires special access that can be from the inside or outside the plane (Goglina). On top of that, it’s very difficult to get to the bay from the inside door because you need a key to be able to go in. From this, it’s speculated that the hijackers knew where the bay door was, went down into it, and changed the satellite transmissions and took control of the flight. There is still an issue with this because even if that plan was successfully carried out, the flight controls of the electronics bay are turned off during flight because “The system was designed to prevent that from the beginning. The computer in the electronics bay is for maintenance diagnostic purposes only and has been designed to be disabled in flight” (Goglina).

   The same goes for changing the satellite transmissions. The procedure the hijackers would have to go through would be next to impossible. The author describes the plan they would have to work through, he states “changing satellite transmission data requires sophisticated test equipment, specialized tools that are unlikely to make it through security unnoticed, and specialized technical knowledge” (Gaglina). Malaysia Airlines never officially stated whether or not the bay is always secure, therefore the theory came to surface.

The last theory points to the crews’ fault for the planes disappearance, specifically Captain Zaharie Ahmand Shah. The emotions turmoil Shah felt has already been discussed. but his actions weren’t. Shah was discovered to have ran a “suicide” flight simulation that took a flight path that was like the presumed flight path of the flight. The article states:  

“Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, conducted a simulated flight deep into the remote southern Indian Ocean less than a month before the plane vanished under uncannily similar circumstances” (Wise). He uses his home built simulator to do so and the FBI conducted a search that found the information. Although the flight paths are similar they aren’t identical. The end points of the paths are 900 miles apart from each other, therefore the flight simulation can be looked at as consequential instead of intentional (Wise).

With these conspiracy theories, the one that gives the best conclusive evidence is the Diego Garcia theory. It gives the most plausible reasoning with little reasoning against it. A survey of 20 people was conducted, and it was found that 80 percent of the people had said yes to believe that the plane went missing because of the government, military, or higher power. This just raises more questions and creates a bigger need to figure out what happened to the flight.

Conclusion

The Malaysian Flight 370 went missing on March 8 2014; from there an abundance of theory were created to explain why. People want answers, especially the ones who had loved ones who were involved. These three conspiracy were developed to try to find those answers: Diego Garcia Theory, the plane was hijacked electronically, and that the crew had planned a suicide mission. Most of the evidence points to the Diego Garcia theory being the best option as to why the plane went missing, but we may never know for sure until undisputable evidence surfaces to solve this worldwide mystery.

Works Cited

Garrison, Dean. "Pentagon Restricts ALL Leave to Diego Garcia – Is Flight 370 Being Hidden? - Freedom Outpost." Freedom Outpost. Freedom Outpost, 09 Apr. 2014. Web. 14 Nov. 2016.

Goglina, John. "Hijacking Malaysia Airlines Flight." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 25 Feb.

2015. Web. 20 Nov. 2016.

Herald, NZ. "Flight MH370: Pilot." The New Zealand Herald. N.p., 25 Mar. 2014. Web. 23 Oct. 2016.

MailOnline, Richard Shears for. "Missing MH370 Pilot." Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 08 Mar. 2016. Web. 23 Oct. 2016.

Moran, Lee, and Corky Siemaszko. "Flight 370 Pilot in ‘no State’ to Be Flying: Friend." NY Daily News. N.p., 26 Mar. 2014. Web. 23 Oct. 2016.

Roy, Ananya. "MH370 Pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah's Mystery Woman Friend Speaks up in His Defence." International Business Times RSS. IBT Times UK, 07 Sept. 2016. Web. 30 Oct. 2016.

Vitelli, Romeo, Dr. "Life After Divorce." Psychology Today. Sussex, 26 Mar. 2014. Web. 23 Oct. 2016

Wise, Jeff. "Exclusive: MH370 Pilot Flew a Suicide Route on His Home Simulator" Daily Intelligencer. New York Media LLC, 22 July 2016. Web. 20 Nov. 2016.