Monday, December 9, 2019

The Lost Airliner: The Story Behind Malaysian Flight 370 By Liam Sweeney



            September 11th, 2001, was one of the scariest days in modern American history. The shockwave of fear that the attack caused could be seen throughout the country. In order to reassure safety, global security measures have been implemented. For over a decade, the commercial airline industry has not seen any major accidents. This would all change on March 8th, 2014, when Malaysian airlines flight 370 mysteriously disappeared over the Indian ocean. To this day, the Boing 777 aircraft and its flight log have not been found. Extensive search parties and many government investigations were immediately held concluded nothing. The depths of modern-day internet and lack of clarity regarding the accident planted the seed for various conspiracy theories:
1.      Did the pilot Zaharie Shah have anything to do with the plane’s disappearance?
2.      Was there another organization such as ISIS involved with the disappearance?
3.      Was there any extraterrestrial influence on the plane and where did they go?
In this essay, we will examine each of these theories in depth and explore the probable causes of the plane’s disappearance.
            Zaharie Shah was one of the most reliable pilots in the world. He had many years of experience and had no blemishes on his record. If you were flying in a Boing 777 and you needed a great pilot, you would choose Zaharie Shah. Shah lived a very comfortable life with his wife and kids. People around Shah described him as passionate and simple. How could someone as simple and innocent looking as him possibly be the center of one of the most controversial disappearances of all time?
Shah was a man who loved his job as an airline pilot passionately. He loved it so much, that he built a flight simulator in his house. He was a family man when he wasn’t working and would’ve been the last person anyone would suspect to be involved in an accident. Or so we thought. Although Zaharie Shah had a seemingly normal life, his death revealed drama and controversy. Social media and text messages revealed that “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. He also sent the Malaysian twin sisters sexually suggestive messages.” (Birchall 1). The married man, that everyone thought was a family man, had another side to him never before seen. He had pursued other people in various cities with sexual intentions. This uncharacteristic behavior that he showed the days leading up to the accident leads people to believe he may not have been the person they thought he was. “Zaharie also used his Facebook to call Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak a ‘moron’. He also slammed the government which owned the airline he flew for. Zaharie urged his followers: ‘There is a rebel in each and every one of us. Let it out!” (Birchall 2). This behavior, as described by aviation expert Geoffrey Thomas, “should have raised serious alarm bells with the airline that you have someone flying who has such strong anti-government views” (Thomas). For someone who worked for Malaysian airlines since the 80’s, these claims toward the Malaysian government are more than alarming. This act of verbal aggression towards the government is dangerously alarming and many agreed that he should’ve been grounded for showing this behavior. These behaviors shown by Shah revealed that he was not the person his public image shaped him to be which could help explain what happened on the day he disappeared.
Image result for zaharie shah

After the accident where Shah went missing, the natural reaction of the public put the pilot as the prime suspect. Police and authorities quickly began to collect data regarding Shah and possible motives. Although Shah had shown signs of odd behaviors leading up to the accident, everyone close to him as well as psychological examinations revealed no mental issues regarding the pilot. A psych evaluation on Zaharie Shah was released following the crash. The evaluation said that Shah made no changes to his daily preflight routine despite many theories saying otherwise. While evaluating the Psych evaluation, Journalist Jeff Wise said:
I find this to be a truly remarkable document. We’ve been hearing rumors that the investigation found no evidence that suggested Zaharie could have a psychological predilection for suicide/mass murder, but here it is at last in black and white, with details such as the fact that his pattern of smoking before a flight was unchanged before MH370. It is hard to imagine that anyone contemplating his own imminent death could exhibit such sang froid. Indeed, I don’t think there has ever been a case where someone who is known to have carried out such an act had such an outward appearance of being balanced and well-adjusted. Andreas Lubitz, for example, had experienced years of psychological upheaval trouble, at one point temporarily washing out from Lufthansa’s flight training program, before destroying Germanwings 9525. In my estimation this psych evaluation must be regarded as powerful evidence that Zaharie did not hijack MH370. (Wise 1)
Despite the widely believed theory that Shah was mentally ill, the examination showed no sign of that. For Shah, nothing he did leading up to the accident showed any suicidal tendencies further confirming that he was a sane person who loved that he did.
            Zaharie Shah was not a well-known person before his flight went missing. He was a simple man living a simple life. If one thing was made clear, it was that he loved flying airplanes. He built his own flight simulator in his house so he could fly even when he wasn’t working. Many researchers and investigators concluded that he had many issues including possible affairs with women on Facebook and strong anti-government beliefs. But through all of his differences and beliefs, he is still seen as an innocent man who loved to fly airplanes.
            Since the attacks of 9/11, the commercial airline industry has been the most secure and heavily monitored public transportation system on the planet. If you have ever flown on a commercial airliner, you know that the amount of security is insanely high. From X-ray scanners for carry-on items, to air marshals flying on many flights protecting the passengers, the amount of security makes it impossible for anything to go wrong. That narrative was believed more 12 years until Malaysian flight 370 seemingly disappeared without a trace. According to a local survey conducted, 73 percent of people believe some sort of foul play was involved in the disappearance of the plane. The three commonly believed theories about the plane and its disappearance are that the pilot intentionally crashed the plane, a terrorist organization like ISIS or Al-Qaeda hijacked the plane, or and extra-terrestrial being was responsible for the plane’s disappearance.
The most believed outcome for the airliner’s fate is that the pilot crashed in a suicide attempt. The pilot of the plane was a man named Zaharie Shah. For Malaysian airlines, Shah was a trustworthy pilot. He had a perfect record and had never been in any accidents. He loved to fly so much that he built a flight simulator in his house for times where he couldn’t work. However, after the plane went missing, many of the pilots said they believed he sabotaged the flight on a suicide mission. They said he was a very quiet man who seemed to have another side to him. In the plane that he piloted, it would be very easy to lock the co-pilot out of the cabin and take the
plane down. In a CBS news story, the Malaysian government blamed the pilot. The article said, “Malaysia acknowledged for the first time that one of the pilots of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 had plotted a course on his home flight simulator to the southern Indian Ocean, where the missing jet is believed to have crashed” (CBS News 1). Although the common thought about the plane blames the pilot, the plane and any trace of it has not been found. A perfect track record along with no big signs of mental illness make his actions very questionable.
The next most likely theory is that a terrorist organization hijacked the plane and took it down. In the years leading up to the disappearance, one of the biggest issues that was talked about on all of the major news networks was the growing threat of terrorism abroad. Due to the strategic use of social media, groups such as Al-Qaeda and ISIS have showed threat and mission to spread terror across the world. The Independent reported that, “the US embassy in Kuala Lumpur issued a warning to American citizens in Malaysia about a heightened risk of terrorist attacks” (Calder 1). This looming threat of terror in Malaysia shows that terrorism is a legitimate threat in Malaysia. The problem with the terror theory is that the plane disappeared. If a terrorist group wanted to attack, they would have done so where people would see it. The final and most obscure theory is the involvement of extra-terrestrial beings. Because the plane and most of its pieces still cease to be found, a small group of people believe that Extra-terrestrial beings or “Aliens” intercepted the plane and took it back to wherever they came from. The evidence behind this theory is very limited but since the plane remains lost even after extensive searches, it is possible it is not on the earth.
The disappearance of Malaysian flight 370 remains one of the strangest occurrences in modern aviation history. The lack of knowledge regarding the planes location and what went wrong on its final flight keep people searching for the truth. Throughout the process of finding
the plane and what happened to it, the leading theory states that the pilot hijacked the plane and took it down in the ocean or an undisclosed location. As the search continues for the truth, more information will be gathered in hope of one day realizing the planes true fate
   Image result for malaysia flight 370
   The mysterious events that took place when Malaysian flight 370 disappeared are truly horrifying and disturbing. The lack of knowledge regarding the plane’s disappearance led to these three conspiracy theories,
1.      Did the pilot Zaharie Shah have anything to do with the plane’s disappearance?
2.      Was there another organization such as ISIS involved with the disappearance?
3.      Was there any extraterrestrial influence on the plane and where did they go?
It can be concluded that the most probable theory is that the plane was hijacked by a passenger or pilot and the plane was taken down over the Indian ocean to protect the hijacker’s target. Although this theory is most likely, plenty of questions remain about the whereabouts of the plane and its passengers.




Work Cited
Irving, Clive. “The Atlantic Dusts Off Discredited Conspiracy Theory to Accuse MH370 Pilot of Hijacking.” The Daily Beast, The Daily Beast Company, 17 June 2019, www.thedailybeast.com/the-atlantics-william-langewiesche-dusts-off-discredited-conspiracy-theory-to-accuse-mh370-pilot-of-hijacking.
Lockett, Jon. “MH370 Pilot's Troubled Private Life Was 'Covered up' by Malaysian Government.” The Sun, The Sun, 19 June 2019, www.thesun.co.uk/news/9327070/mh370-crash-police-private-life-probe/.
Wilson, Ewan. “MH370: 'Pilot Zaharie Shah Committed Suicide & Killed Everyone Else On Malaysia Airlines Flight'.” Huffington Post, 2015, www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/09/16/mh370-pilot-zaharie-shah-committed-suicide-murdered-malaysia-airlines-flight_n_5827610.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYmluZy5jb20v&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAACu23dqlkomgJBh6kfakChADMUWi9X5XLBA8ZRj1tqo4_SCZCjaeEC_8oiB09kvVi0kwihlrLghWWd0o-HRdLtgTi9Sa6fXs0ydzqHp1lVoQVWBlEigAVfOHMc5W4LKDPvl4smvXHPKYaKIozIml3wAm9aHa_z3urjXLJsvPF2SN.
Wise, Jeff. “Zaharie Shah's Secret Psych Evaluation.” Jeff Wise, 18 Jan. 2017, jeffwise.net/2017/01/05/zaharie-shahs-secret-psych-evaluation/comment-page-1/.
Calder @SimonCalder, Simon. “Could Terrorists Have Hijacked Flight MH370?” The Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 7 Aug. 2015, www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/mh370-live-could-terrorists-have-hijacked-the-missing-malaysia-airlines-boeing-777-10443580.html.
Cbs/ap. “Malaysia Confirms Flight 370 Pilot Plotted Fatal Route.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 5 Aug. 2016, www.cbsnews.com/news/malaysia-confirms-flight-370-pilot-plotted-fatal-route/.


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