What really happened to the
vanishing Malaysia Flight 370 in 2014?
March 8, 2014, and the many days that followed it were full of
confusion, questions, sorrow, and more questions. Despite the continuous search efforts to
locate the missing flight, Malaysia Flight 370 is still a mystery. There are
numerous conspiracy theories surrounding this missing plane’s case:
- Did the pilot, Zaharie Shah,
purposely destroy the plane and its passengers?
- The plane was hijacked.
- There were a number of
mechanical errors that doomed the plane.
Let’s take a look into this case and see if we can find a
conclusion.
Zaharie
Shah, the expert captain of Malaysia Flight 370, disappeared on a routine
flight in the middle of the night. Before this tragic coincidence, Zaharie had
his whole life together. He was married
to a wife that he loved and three children.
Shah had been a B777 captain for more than sixteen years with over 8,500
hours of flight time (Birchall 1). Shah
was an experienced flight captain, who was looked to as a veteran to his fellow
flight captains. During his final years
as a pilot, he would purposely take in younger pilots to teach them what he
knew about flying and answer any questions they had (Birchall 1). He knew what he was doing, he knew how to fly
safely, but was this purely an accident or a plan he had devised himself. Let’s dig deeper and see what we can find out
about Captain Zaharie Shah.
There are
numerous conspiracy theories about how plane MH370 got off track and ultimately
crashed killing 239 people. Many people
blame the plane for malfunctioning, they blame the government for not
completely coming out and speaking about this phenomenon, terrorists for
hijacking the plane, or they blame the pilot (Birchall 1). Weeks before the crash, Zaharie was not his
normal self. His mental health and
family life were all a big mess during this.
After the crash, it was reported that Zaharie Shah’s wife had moved out
of their house just days before (1).
Shah was most likely in a deep hole of depression and solitude. Along with his solitude, he also was not in
the best shape mentally (1). “Married captain Zaharie Ahmad
Shah, 53, sent 26-year-old sisters, Lan Qi Hui and Qi Min Lan messages, begging
them to come to Kuala Lumpur.” (1). He ended up sending close to 100
“self-destructive” messages just to those twin sisters, as he sent sexual and
creepy messages to both of them (1).
Even though he was ignored every time, he continued with his efforts of
grabbing the girls’ attention (1). It
was also said by an unnamed friend that Shah spent most of his alone time
pacing empty rooms in his house (Premack 1).
All this to provide evidence for believing that Captain Zaharie Shah’s
mental health was not stable during the months prior to the vanishment of
Malaysian Flight 370. Due to his
loneliness and mental health depression, Shah was not in a good state of mind
and most likely had thoughts about suicide.
The very experienced Zaharie Shah
was not alone in the cockpit for this flight, he was accompanied by Fariq Abdul
Hamid (Birchall 1). This was Fariq’s
first approved flight as an officer in the cockpit of a 777 airliner (1). It is for sure that Hamid was very nervous
during this flight. He had no experience
and looked up to his captain for some good advice on how to fly a massive
airplane (1). Malaysia Flight 370 took
off very early in the morning, close to 12:40 a.m. local time, and went along
on its path for the first 40 minutes or so (Premack 1). At 1:20 a.m, Captain Shah gave his goodnight
to the airport operators and cut off communications with the surrounding
channels (Premack 1). Most conspiracy
theories surrounding Zaharie Shah’s name and Malaysia Flight 370 point to a
deliberate suicide action by Captain Shah.
Many people have numerous different guesses as to what really happened
to the vanishing flight, but ultimately they never know. Around 1:25 a.m. local time, Malaysia flight
370 deviated from its flight path and headed due west (1). Many sources believe that Shah was in the
cockpit alone when the flight took a hard left turn because it would have been
noticed by the co-pilot. “As
a senior officer and examiner it would have been easy to divert co-pilot Fariq
Abdul Hamid, 27, out of the cockpit and then lock the door, the pilot said.”
(Birchall 1) While he was gone, Captain Shah most likely locked Hamid outside
of the cockpit and had total control of the plane (Birchall 1). Multiple reports say that Zaharie slowly cut
off the oxygen supply to the 239 passengers which would have made the passengers
dizzy and slowly killed them without causing a riot as the plane veered off its
path (Birchall 1). " ‘An intentional
depressurization would have been an obvious way — and probably the only way —
to subdue a potentially unruly cabin in an airplane that was going to remain in
flight for hours to come,’ Langewiesche, who is also a pilot, wrote.” (Premack
1) The oxygen masks that are equipped in
every 777 plane only supply oxygen for about 15 minutes each. Captain Shah could have easily put on four or
five masks and had enough oxygen and brainpower to fly the airplane for a few
more hours (1). As the plane veers way
off of its path, the plane it picked up by several military satellites and
steadily fly across Malaysia and into the Indian Ocean. No one quite knows how far the plane flew
after the communications were cut off, so in reality, that plane could have
flown for hours on end until the fuel ran out (Premack). One conspiracy even states that Shah secretly
kept a parachute in the cockpit so he could escape his current life and start a
new adventure with a secret lover (Hoare).
That theory does not have that much information and background knowledge
on why he would want to do that so it does not make a whole lot of sense. Ultimately, the plane would not veer off in
that direction without a human hand that knows how to operate a plane behind
the controls. It makes total sense that
the plane veered off by Captain Zaharie Shah himself because he was mentally
unstable. A sample from the survey shows
that roughly 62% of people believe that the plan was veered off its path and
eventually doomed due to Captain Shah deliberately crashing the massive
plane. Zaharie Shah was unstable,
mentally unhealthy, and overall depressed before the plane crash on March 8,
2014 (Birchall 1). Captain Shah knew how
to fly a plane, he had been doing it the same way for over 16 years. This is hard to accept as a “mess up” on the
captain’s behalf, this is a deliberate plan to kill himself and all of the
passengers on that plane.
The second theory surrounding the
mysterious crash of Malaysia Flight 370 is the plane was hijacked, either by
terrorists, someone on board, or a person behind a computer. Because of the loss in communication and bizarre
turn the plane took, it is believed to have been specifically done by human
force rather than the plane breaking down and falling apart. Hijacking this plane could have been done
from a passenger on board, terrorists, or even electronic hijacking. Just like all theories, we cannot completely
come to a conclusion on which one makes the most sense and cannot even tell if
what we think happened even did or not.
We can have an opinion and believe what we think happened, but we are
never completely sure. Let’s dig in and
see what we can figure out.
When the
news broke about the Malaysia Flight 370 disappearance, a company came out,
Freescale Semiconductor and said that they had lost twenty intelligent
engineers on that flight (Anderson 1).
These engineers were a big part of this company and the company felt the
effects of these men and women who were lost on the plane (1). They were a part of a company that was using
powerful defense technology along with certain frequency communications (1). The reason that this matter is that it is
believed that terrorists knew the engineers were on that flight and wanted to
either kill or take captive those twenty engineers and derive anything they
could for their own knowledge (1). Those
twenty engineers still could be alive being held captive somewhere very
secretive, but that is a big stretch.
Another hijacking theory surfaced, claiming that the plane was taken by
a team member. “It is feasible that one
of the pilots intended to land or ditch the aircraft in a survivable state but
bungled it and was incapacitated by hypoxia along with the others on board,”
(Calder 1). This theory is tough to
believe because the chances of someone surviving this plummet are infinitely
small and would obviously fail. They
could have attempted it, but would not have succeeded (1). Another hijacking theory is assumed to be
done from the ground. This theory
implies that the plane would be taken above 40,000 feet to where the plane would
be depressurized and kill off all of the civilians on the flight (1). Meanwhile, the plane is still being operated
on the ground by criminals manipulating the flight pattern (1). The results of my small survey were that 30%
of people believed that Malaysia Flight 370 was hijacked either by terrorists,
someone on the plane or someone using high technology. Ultimately, we cannot conclude which theory
actually happened because after all, it is just a theory. We do not know the whole story and probably
never will.
The third
theory is that the plane went down because of mechanical errors. There are many phenomena that could have
happened to the plane, but here we will narrow it down to just a few. One rumor states that a bathroom break could
have doomed the plane (Michael 1). “She
theorizes that an explosive decompression sucked the air out of the cabin,
setting the flight on course for disaster,” (1). This conspiracy claims that the toilet, when
flushed, sucked all of the air out of the plane and eventually killed all 237
passengers on board (1). The cockpit
fire is another believable theory. This
breaks down the possibility of there being a fire where the captain and
co-pilot sit, leaving them dead in just seconds with little chance to escape
(1). Even if they did escape the fire in
the cockpit, that plane is still going to be doomed one way or the other. It is either going to plunge into the ocean
or continue on its path and eventually run out of fuel and crash (1). My survey shows that these mechanical errors
were very less likely to happen with 8% of people believing that some sort of
mechanical error occurred on this doomed flight. These mechanical errors are
hard to think about because they can be so easily avoided.
There are
numerous conspiracy theories that debate how the vanishment of Malaysia Flight
370 became such a big story. At the end
of the day, we do not really know what happened considering we have no
survivors or communication with the plane just before the crash. Hopefully, these theories were broken down
enough to see the full detail of what really happened from your own personal
perspective.
To this day, Malaysia Flight 370 is
still a mystery. The families of those affected still hurt and seek
answers. Even with continued search
efforts and investigations, a conclusion has not been named. The ultimate disappearance resulted in three
main theories:
- Did the pilot, Zaharie Shah,
purposely destroy the plane and its passengers?
- The plane was hijacked.
- There were a number of
mechanical errors that doomed the plane.
Although critical evidence points to Captain Shah purposely
crashing the plane, the mystery that took place over five years ago remains as
a mystery to be unsolved.
Works Cited
S
Anderson, Claire. "MH370 Shock: Missing Plane Could Have Been Hijacked by
Terrorists Targeting US Engineers." Express.co.uk,
19 July 2019, www.express.co.uk/news/weird/1155225/mh370-news-malaysia-airlines-370-missing-plane-hijacking-proof-us-freescale.
S Birchall, Guy. “Who Was Zaharie Ahmad Shah? MH370 Pilot
Who Was in Command of the Malaysian Airlines Jet When It Vanished.” The Sun, The Sun, 18 June 2019, https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/7483593/zaharie-ahmad-shah-mh370-pilot-malaysian-airlines/.
S
Calder, Simon. "What Happened to MH370? Five Theories Evaluated." The Independent, 8 Mar. 2019,www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/mh370-missing-theory-evaluated-malaysia-airlines-boeing-777-a8812426.html.
S Hoare, Callum. "MH370 Shock Claim: Captain Zaharie Shah
Was 'hiding Secret Mistress'." Express.co.uk, 25 June 2019, www.express.co.uk/news/weird/1143777/mh370-shock-claim-captain-zaharie-shah-secret-mistress-spt.
S
Michael, Tom. "MH370 Conspiracy Theories Resurface As Search Teams Abandon
Hunt for Missing Jet." The Sun,
19 June 2019, www.thesun.co.uk/news/2553010/mh370-conspiracy-theories-resurface-search-teams-abandon-hunt/.
S Premack, Rachel. "A Chilling Report Suggests the
Pilot on MH370 May Have Depressurized the Cabin, 'gently' Killing the More Than
200 Passengers on Board Before Crashing." Business Insider, 17 June 2019, www.businessinsider.com/mh370-malaysia-airlines-captain-may-have-cut-off-oxygen-2019-6.
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