MH370 disappeared over six years ago and there are many theories as to what happened – but one piece of evidence appears to confirm it was definitely not an accident.
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went missing on March 8, 2014, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board. The last communication with the plane was at 1:19am local time, when air traffic controllers from Lumpur Radar instructed the pilot to contact their counterparts in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Two minutes later, MH370 passed the last waypoint in Malaysia-controlled airspace and then winked out, in other words it disappeared from air traffic control radar and became completely unresponsive.
Initially, when it became clear the plane had disappeared and no one knew where it was, it was thought some terrible accident may have occurred.
Because there was such little time between the last communication and the plane disappearing, one theory was that the plane may have experienced a technical malfunction that left the pilot and copilot incapacitated.
However, it then emerged that the plane had still been visible on primary radar owned by the military for around an hour after it disappeared from civilian radar.
This evidence revealed a different picture altogether: the plane had diverted from its original path, taking a sharp turn and flying back towards the Malay Peninsula before turning again and flying up the Malacca Strait towards the Andaman Islands.
Once it reached the Indian Ocean, it was out of range of military radar but, bizarrely, its transponder came back on.
MH370 expert Jeff Wise explained in his 2019 book ‘The Taking of MH370’ why this appears to disprove the accident theory.
He wrote: “This revelation changed the picture dramatically.
“Suddenly the disappearance didn’t look at all like an accident.
“The plane had not circled or followed a twisting path, as it would if manoeuvring for an emergency landing; nor had it headed unswervingly on a single course, like a plane on autopilot whose human pilots had become incapacitated through smoke inhalation or cockpit depressurisation.
“It had flown a zig-zag series of segments from waypoint to waypoint, implying that whoever was in control understood how to operate and navigate a commercial aircraft.”
It also displayed an understanding of how military air traffic control operates.
In that first hour after diverting from its original course, MH370 had almost exclusively flown along the boundaries of Flight Information Regions (FIRs).
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This meant that the air traffic controllers in Thailand and Malaysia both assumed the plane they saw flying along the boundary belonged to the other and so found no cause for alarm.
RAF navigator Steve Pierson told Mr Wise: “That’s quite clever, because if you fly down the FIR boundary the controllers on each side might assume the other was controlling you.
“Usually a civilian air traffic controller would call his counterpart to check – military, not so much.
“They might think: ‘Oh, that must be the other country’s aircraft, that’s not my problem, I won’t worry about it.’
“And the other country thinks: ‘Oh, that’s their problem, I won’t worry about it.’”
Whoever was in charge of the plane, also flew it “aggressively”, according to Mr Wise, demonstrating that they were very familiar with the controls of the Boeing 777-200ER.
All these things point towards the incident not being an accident, but the work of one or more hijacker familiar with both flying airliners and with air traffic control procedures.
Suspicion has, of course, fallen on the pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah and co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid.
Mr Shah was allegedly experiencing mental health problems and marital issues, and the authorities found a flight simulator in his basement that contained flight waypoints similar to the path of MH370.
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Mr Hamid, meanwhile, had previously broken aviation rules by having guests in his cockpit.
However, neither displayed the signs of someone likely to carry out a severe workplace suicide, according to risk management consultant Dr Sally Leivesley.
Dr Leivesly told the 2019 Channel 5 documentary ‘Flight MH370’ that those who carry out severe workplace suicides usually have a long history of depression and aggression.
Unfortunately, the cockpit flight recorder that could have answered these questions was never recovered.
This means it is still a mystery who exactly is behind the tragic event, but what is clear from the primary radar evidence, according to Mr Wise, is that it was not an accident.
Sourse: www.express.co.uk
