Malaysia Airlines MH370

Zaharie, a middle-aged, upper middle class, Muslim Malay family man, knew what it would do to his children if he was found to have committed not just suicide, but large-scale mass murder. I don't doubt that he was possibly troubled, lonely, depressed, maybe even suicidal. I just have strong doubts that this would have been the way he would have chosen to do it.

Langewiesche briefly mentions on SilkAir 185 and EgyptAir 990 in his article, but the investigations (and how they were attenuated by government/airline officials) are worth digging into. Again, the only conclusion you can reach is that we'll never find out.

Surprising number of commercial pilot-suicides:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SilkAir_Flight_185
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EgyptAir_Flight_990
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Air_Maroc_Flight_630
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LAM_Mozambique_Airlines_Flight_470
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Airlines_Flight_350
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanwings_Flight_9525

On the question of why the pilot would turn back over land, I’ve read speculation that he wanted to fly over Penang his old hometown one last time.

Other pilots have spoken about this - it's only a possibility if he was sitting and leaning over sharply in the co-pilot's seat. Otherwise, the way the plane curved and the height/speed it was at suggests he wouldn't even be able to see Penang, a tiny little island, in the dead of night. And again it begs the question, why not then fly out past Penang straight into the Indian Ocean? Why turn again, this time down south flying past the Malaysian peninsular, Singapore, and the northeastern tip of Indonesia?

Just to be clear, I don't disagree that pilot suicide is more common that you'd expect and that barring evidence of a hijacking or mechanical failure, a pilot error or intention is the likeliest cause of any flight accident. I also agree that airlines/governments can interpret the same set of facts in multiple ways, esp if they feel they have something to gain/lose. But it still makes little sense to me - MH370's erratic flight path is just not a route that anyone, especially an experienced pilot, would have taken if they were really intent on disappearing the way they did i.e. flying out for hours until fuel exhaustion.

To me, the real responsibility here lies with the air traffic controllers and military radar operators in Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and KL (mostly KL). Had any of them done their jobs properly that night, someone would have noticed the plane's turnaround much earlier. There was a four-hour delay in reaction that no one, certainly not a pilot on a mission to disappear, would have been able to foresee.

thats a really interesting thought though

assuming pilot intent, could we predict that *he* would have planned to have been discovered much sooner?

that the end path may have been a "i guess I'll do this, seeing as nobody has shown up" rather than a plan?

and what would have been his plan then, if he was caught? that's the thing with this story, it rewards conspiratorial thinking.

Anyway, the more I think about this piece the more upset I am with it. Langeweische devoted half of it on Blaine Gibson, who for sure deserves some credit for finding a lot of the plane debris, but is a known crank who isn't to be taken seriously (he shows up frequently at MH370 events in KL, often uninvited and looking around at reporters hopefully to be interviewed). And yet he's named in the piece over 40 times!

Langeweisch, rightfully, blames Malaysia's political culture but ignores the fact that the current government was not the one that handled the tragedy at the time - Najib's administration was thrown out last year. At the end of the piece, the only member of government named in the story is transport minister Anthony Loke, who was elected and appointed to the post in June 2018, more than four years after MH370.

He doesn't interview a single member of the Malaysian government or investigation team in charge at the time, nor does he reach out to anyone from Zaharie's family. His entire argument that the pilot did it relies on conversations with an unnamed colleague.

It's a brilliantly written summary of where things stand, but I don't think his conclusions stand up to scrutiny. And all of it just makes me think about that Atlantic editor who talked about how the only journalists he found who were willing to write 10,000-word pieces were white men.

and now i'm listening to the dutch press conference on MH17, that other never-ending aircraft tragedy. sigh.

Is there really a better flight path he could have taken if his intention was to avoid primary radar? It seems heading east into the Pacific would have taken him over areas with a bigger military presence, like the South China Sea, where chances of detection would be much higher.

To be fair, the impression I got from Langeweisch was that Gibson is a bit of a crank who latches vampirically onto the survivors, but a crank who also found a bunch of plane bits

The world of wreckchasers - especially the ones who latch onto a cause - is highly specific and obsessive.

just read this article, and appreciated roz's insights, but given the evidence presented I find it difficult to doubt the conclusion that zaharie was responsible

Six years gone.

time flies

maybe it will turn up after 8 years like the kid in Flight of the Navigator

they get around

Great overview article on where things are at with the search, what probably happened, etc.: Call of the Void - Seven years on, what do we know about the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight 370?

Oof

Great overview article

otm

Yeah, its a good summary, although it seems not much new evidence has come to light since the last revive for the Atlantic article a couple of years ago. The most likely scenario is still the same.

It wasn’t until 30 minutes after that when someone finally told the operations department that Flight Explorer was not showing the real position of the plane, only a projected position.

Still reading this, but it seems insane to me that the airline didn't know this.

Yeah that jumped out. As did this which I guess I forgot was part of the chain of revelations at the time (that this was something pilots generally wouldn't know about):

Unbeknownst to him, the satellite communication unit starts to acknowledge the satellite again. This is his one mistake — but it’s a forgivable one, as hardly any airline pilots knew about this system feature before the disappearance of MH370.

Let's not forget Roz's posts a little earlier in the thread -- that's good context.

Coming to Netflix:

https://www.netflix.com/title/81307163

I swear, some people have too much free time

https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/15ot29v/psychic_remoteviewed_mh370_being_teleported_by

some of that references this : https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/15oi2qc/mh370_airliner_videos_part_iii_the_rabbit_hole/

Some sound advice in that first Reddit link: "I swear to fucking god if it comes out that a tin foil hat is the traditional method to fight greys I’m gonna shit my pants"

ten years gone today

I saw something about a new search being planned?

yeah Ocean Infinity, the company that did the last search in 2018 wants to keep looking and is willing to get paid only if they find it. maybe third time's a charm

the countries involved (Australia, Malaysia, China) haven't approved it yet though