The Mystery of Malaysia Flight 370 by Madeleine White

The disappearance of Malaysia flight 370 has perplexed the world for almost five years now, and we are almost no closer to the truth. Much of the evidence points to the pilot, Zaharie Shah, being the most likely instigator of the chilling plane disappearance, but why? Why would a seemingly normal pilot cause an entire plane of innocent people to vanish? Let’s take a closer look at the facts, and dive in to the mysterious disappearance of Malaysia flight 370.

Zaharie Ahmad Shah was a relatively normal and well-liked man; he cooked for community events, and made sure his wife and children cooked when he was working (CBS News).  His sister, Sakinab, spoke highly of his character, saying that not only is he kind and loving, but he’s very generous, especially when it comes to his family (Stevens). Being the youngest of nine children, one would think that with the large age differences, he would not be close with his siblings, but he and his sister remained very close, even with 17 years apart (1). Sakinab says she knew him like the back of her hand (Stevens).

Zaharie Ahmad Shah was a very dedicated and dependable pilot. Peter Chong, a friend of Shah’s, says that Shah “is a very disciplined pilot” and has logged over 80,000 flight hours, which attests to his dependability and skill (Stevens). He goes on to say that “the Captain Zaharie that I know would strictly follow [the rules]” and that there “could not be a better pilot” in the air (“Daughter of MH370 Pilot Raises Alarming New Questions about His State of Mind”). Shah’s love for aviation began when he was in his early teens, so it is no surprised he was often found practicing in his flight simulator at home (1).

Zaharie was a simple man who loved his aviation hobbies. According to his daughter, he loved his flight simulator, and would spend hours working in it for weeks before the plane disappeared (“Daughter of MH370 Pilot Raises Alarming New Questions about His State of Mind”). He has loved aviation ever since he was 14 or 15, and he turned down a scholarship for university so he could be a pilot (Stevens). As seen on his Facebook page, he also enjoyed flying model airplanes and helicopters with his friends in his free time (“Seven Things Malaysian Pilot Zaharie Shah's Internet Footprint Tells Us about Him.”).

Shah never showed any previous signs of mental distress, but in the weeks before Malaysia flight 370 disappeared, he would sit with his simulator for hours, refusing to speak to his wife and becoming “distracted and withdrawn” (“Daughter of MH370 Pilot Raises Alarming New Questions about His State of Mind”). According to his family, Zaharie and his wife were “on the brink of divorcing” after almost thirty years of marriage and he refused to see marriage counselors (1). All his children noted a change in his behavior, his daughter, Aishah, saying that Zaharie was “distant and cranky,” and his son, Ahmed Seth, saying he hadn’t spoken to his father in the weeks before the plane crash, even though they still lived in the same house. With these marriage struggles, it is not unlikely that Zaharie snapped and planned the disappearance of Malaysian flight 370.

The first theory suggests that the pilot himself is the one to blame. In the weeks before the disappearance, Shah’s family says that he was secluded and withdrawn (Andrews). According to the Safety Investigation Report conducted by the Ministry of Transport in Malaysia, the last transmission from the flight to air control was “Goodnight Malaysian 370,” spoken by Zaharie Shah himself. The plane’s tracker was shut off mere minutes later (Malaysian Ministry of Transport). Shah was one of the best pilots in his area, and he owned a flight simulator in his home in which he plotted a course “very similar” to the course Malaysia flight 370 was said to have taken (“Daughter of MH370 Pilot Raises Alarming New Questions about His State of Mind”). He has also logged over 80,000 flight hours, so he could be the only one capable of veering the plane off course and crashing it where it would never be found (Stevens). It is also rumored that his wife left him and took their children mere days before the flight disappeared because they had been “on the brink of divorce” for the last month. (1). A depressed man with thousands of hours of flight experience who believed he had lost everything seems like the most plausible explanation for the disappearance of a plane with 239 people aboard.

The second theory is that the plane was hijacked by a terrorist on board. Along with the passenger’s luggage, the plane was carrying 2.435 kg of lithium batteries, walkie talkies, radio accessories and chargers, electronic capacitors, and mangosteens (Malaysian Ministry of Transport). What is odd about this is that the batteries could be considered a fire hazard, so one can speculate on why there were so many batteries on a commercial flight. It is also said that mangosteens are out of season at the time of year the plane disappeared, which would seem like a waste of money to an outsider’s eye (Malaysian Ministry of Transport). Before communication was cut off, the plane was taken off autopilot, and the plane made a sharp manual turn, which suggests that the plane could have been suddenly taken over. However, the police cleared all the passengers or having no flight experience (“Malaysia Plane Could Have Been Hijacked in 2014, Report Says”).

The last and least likely conspiracy is that the plane was remotely hijacked. It is rumored that the plane was carrying “sensitive material or personnel” to China, and remote hackers took over the plane’s systems to prevent the plane from landing (Webb). Norman Davies pointed out that the plane had a remote piloting system, which makes it possible for hackers to infiltrate the software. However, the last words from the cockpit, “Goodnight Malaysian 370” suggest that the plane was not hijacked from a remote area (1).

The disappearance of Malaysia Flight 370 has perplexed the world for almost 5 years, and will continue to do so unless new evidence appears. Some believe that remote hackers or a malfunction could have caused it, but the most likely cause was a suicidal pilot, who took all the secrets of Malaysia flight 370 with him.

Works Cited

“Missing Jet Pilot, Co-Pilot Had Strong Ties to Family, Community.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, www.nbcnews.com/storyline/missing-jet/missing-jet-pilot-co-pilot-had-strong-ties-family-community-n53336.

Stevens, Andrew. “Sister of MH370 Pilot: My Brother Is a Scapegoat.” CNN, Cable News Network, 26 July 2016, www.cnn.com/2016/07/26/asia/mh370-pilot-sister-interview/index.html.

“Daughter of MH370 Pilot Raises Alarming New Questions about His State of Mind.” Daily Mail Online, Associated Newspapers, 30 Mar. 2014, www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2592436/He-wasnt-father-I-knew-He-lost-disturbed-Daughter-MH370-pilot-raises-alarming-new-questions-state-mind-weeks-planes-disappearance.html.

 “Seven Things Malaysian Pilot Zaharie Shah's Internet Footprint Tells Us about Him.” Scroll.in - Latest News, In Depth News, India News, Politics News, Indian Cinema, Indian Sports, Culture, Video News, Https:////Scroll.in, 3 Jan. 2017, scroll.in/article/658667/seven-things-malaysian-pilot-zaharie-shahs-internet-footprint-tells-us-about-him.

Staff. CNN, Cable News Network, 29 Mar. 2014, www.cnn.com/videos/world/2014/03/29/pmt-intv-chong-friend-of-pilot.cnn.

Ministry of Transport Malaysia. Safety Investigation Report. mh370.mot.gov.my/MH370SafetyInvestigationReport.pdf.

“Malaysia Plane Could Have Been Hijacked in 2014, Report Says.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 30 July 2018, www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-mh370-report-20180730-story.html.

 “MH370: Safety Investigation Report 2018.” Book of Research, 31 July 2018, bookofresearch.wordpress.com/2018/07/30/mh370-safety-investigation-report-2018/.

Webb, Sam. “MH370 Was the First 'Remote Hijacking', Author Claims.” The Sun, The Sun, 12 Dec. 2017, www.thesun.co.uk/news/5123350/mh370-was-the-first-remote-hijacking-and-carried-out-to-stop-jet-delivering-secret-cargo-to-china-author-claims/.