The Mysterious Disappearance of MH370/ Mystery of Malaysia Airline Flight 370/What happened to MH370 Flight?

Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 

Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 departed Kuala Lumpur at 12:42 a.m. on 8th March 2014. This flight was headed to Beijing. There were 227 passengers on this flight, 10 flight attendants, and 2 pilots flying this plane. Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53 years old, is one of the senior captains in Malaysian Airlines, he is highly experienced. First officer Fariq Hamid was 27 years old and this was his first training flight. After this training flight, he will be fully qualified as a pilot.

Flight Disappearance:

 This flight takes off on the correct path for 20 minutes. However, at 1:08 a.m., this flight passes over the Malay Peninsula and makes its way to the South China Sea, heading towards Vietnam. According to Zaharie's flight report, the aircraft is at 35, 000 feet. Everything was running normally. About 11 minutes later, the airplane entered the jurisdiction of the Vietnamese Air Traffic. 

That's why the Air Traffic Control of Kuala Lumpur, radios the airplane saying, "Malaysian 370, Contact Ho Chi Minh. 120.9. Goodnight." Captain Zaharie answered by saying, "Good night. MAS 370." Everything sounds normal. And it was normal till this point in time. However, Captain Zaharie's last words were the last heard from the aircraft. After that, there were no further reports from the flight. The Malaysia Airlines flight has suddenly vanished. This has now become the world's biggest aviation mystery

Vietnamese Airspace:

Merely 30 seconds after entering Vietnamese Airspace, this plane disappeared from the radar suddenly. It was 01:21 AM in the morning. The Kuala Lumpur Air Traffic Control didn’t see this and when they did, they thought the plane had passed out of their radar range and entered Vietnam’s airspace. Nothing out of the ordinary. In contrast, the Vietnamese Air Traffic Control detected that the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 had entered their airspace but then suddenly vanished from their radar.

They tried to communicate with the plane, but there was no response from the other side. After an hour and a half of fruitless attempts, Vietnamese controllers notified Kuala Lumpur that MH 370 had suddenly vanished. Typically, in such cases, Kuala Lumpur’s Air Rescue Coordination Centre (ARCCC) is supposed to be notified within 1 hour of the plane going missing. However, it wasn’t until 4 hours later that an ARCC began its emergency response.

 Search operation:

It was 06:32 in the morning. That was the date on which the plane was supposed to land in Beijing. But it did not land. A search operation was called immediately.

Search operation for Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370

Efforts began to find the plane. According to the map, the flight originated in Malaysia and was headed from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Vietnam is located in the central part of the map, as well as in the South China Sea. So obviously, the search operation began in the South China Sea, to look for the plane.           

This search operation was an international effort. 34 ships and 28 aircraft from 7 different countries, try to look for this plane that morning.

Military radar spotted the plane:

About 4 days later, on 12th March, it was reported that though the plane had disappeared from the civilian radar, a military radar had spotted the plane that night.

Surprisingly, this military radar indicates that this aircraft was last observed at 2:22 a.m. and 02:22 a.m. However, it was not over the South China Sea. Rather, it was near the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Just west of Malaysia, across the Malacca Straits. And according to the readings of this military radar, this plane was flying North in the direction of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The other way from Beijing. This news left everyone shocked.

Where did this plane go? Did it fly towards India's direction, and crash in the Himalayas or in Kazakhstan?

A few days later, another piece of information was uncovered from satellite data. The plane was attempting to communicate automatically with a satellite. It is actually quite common. Large airplanes like the Boeing 777 try to establish communication with satellites. To make their communication easier. It’s like your phone automatically trying to connect to a known WiFi network. It’s a lot like that. 

But the difference is when this plane was communicating with this satellite, it was just logging in and trying to make a connection. There wasn’t any information sent back about the plane’s location. The satellite knew that this plane was trying to communicate, but nothing else.

Investigations into the Mystery:

 However, some scientists and investigators thought to use this to approximate the location of the plane. They thought that when the satellite received the communication, the satellite would have moved its antenna towards the direction of the plane. This was done by measuring the antenna angle of the satellite and then making estimates based on that and estimating the plane’s location.

As I mentioned earlier, the satellite couldn’t be used to determine the exact location, but it was able to estimate that the circle that we see in the white colour is the plane and that the plane can be anywhere within that circle.

When it tried to communicate with the satellite. The plane tried to establish communication with the satellite 7 times. That's why 7 different circles in white colour. These are known as Satellite Handshakes. Every circle shows the time when the plane tried to communicate with the satellite. The 7th and final circle shows the last time the plane attempted to contact the satellite. 

The last point where this airplane could have been. It was pretty amazing because this circle is really big. It covers a ton of ground, from Kazakhstan, China, Indonesia, all the way to Australia, and it covers a huge ocean, so it could be anywhere in that last circle. Or perhaps further than this.

What is the 7th Arc?

This was its final attempt to send a message. After this, the investigators did more calculations. We then calculated the remaining fuel in the aircraft and estimated that the aircraft could be in this shadowed area of the circle. On this arc of the circle. It was famously called the 7th Arc. The 7th Arc is located 2,000 kilometers west of Australia and covers a huge area. It was in such a part of the ocean that hasn't been explored much.

On this map, the location of the satellite that was used for the prediction. The yellow dotted circle at the furthest distance that you can see is the distance that the plane can travel with fuel. With the flight time of 7 hours. The curved arc in red is the 7th Arc, the place where the plane is assumed to have crashed.

After that, several searches were performed. The yellow shaded areas indicate the locations where the search operations took place. The orange area indicates the priority search area where the highest number of searches took place.

 In April 2014, the ocean surface search operations were discontinued. Because it wasn't fruitful. Since the plane had crashed, it would've sunk into the ocean. It wouldn't be floating on the ocean's surface. So deep ocean searches began. At the time, it was the biggest and most expensive search ever carried out.

 The first piece of debris found on Reunion Island:

The first piece of debris found on Reunion Island

They searched for weeks and even months and even years without finding the plane. 3 years later, after spending $160 million, they called off this operation. This operation was deemed a failure. In the midst of all this, there was one silver lining. In July 2015, the debris from this plane was discovered for the first time. The debris was brought to the island of Réunion by boat. The island is located in the eastern part of Madagascar. The flaperon of the plane was found here. It is a broken part of the plane.

 Ocean Infinity signed, a Contract with the Malaysian Government:

After this, in 2018, an American company Ocean Infinity signed a new contract with the Malaysian government. They wanted to conduct the search operations and if they weren't able to find the plane, they wouldn't charge any fees. No find, no fee. On this condition, they began a new search operation.

They have highly advanced underwater surveillance vehicles. They were searching the bottom of the ocean while they were doing it. And in this search operation, they found in the area of the 7^th Several cliffs and mountains as well. They kept searching for months.

But unfortunately, They decided to run background checks on the passengers of the plane. And a background check of the plane’s pilots to check their criminal records and if there was a hijacking attempt.

Theories after investigation:

After these investigations, some theories came forward. What exactly could have happened?

The first theory is how the plane could have vanished from the radar. It could have been caused by an electrical fault in the plane, an accident, or a technical malfunction in the plane that caused the equipment to stop working. It could also have been caused by a passenger or pilot manually disabling the transponder on purpose.

1. The second theory is that the captain, Zaharie Shah, intentionally disabled communication, took the plane with him, and then crashed the plane into the ocean.
2. But what could be the reason for him to do this? Some people say that he may have not been in the right mental state. Some people believe he was suicidal. Some people think it was the result of a kidnapping or a terrorist attack, but why Zaharie is the one being accused? There are a few arguments to back this up. The first point is that the airplane turned nearly 180° from Vietnam back to Malaysia, the autopilot couldn't have done this on its own. The airplane's pilot must have done this manually and intentionally.
3. The second factor is that the plane flew directly over the Thailand-Malaysia border. It is alleged to have been done intentionally. It was done intentionally. So that they could escape the airspace radar of both countries.
4. The third element is very interesting. According to reports, Zaharie used a flight simulator in his residence, which is not uncommon in itself, but on this particular flight, In the simulation, he drew a path while playing the game. The path, by chance, was very close to the path that MH370 actually took. When you hear this, you might think that this must have been the case. However, the official responsible for this search operation completely refuted this theory. He said that this couldn't have happened because there are many counter-arguments too.
5. In the first place, he was an experienced pilot. He was respected by all. He had no family problems, no economic problems, he didn't have any past behavior to suggest this, so there is no reason to doubt his integrity. If a pilot wanted to commit suicide, to crash the plane, there would be some sign in his behavior or in his life. But nothing as such was found. This is why the second prevailing theory is that there have to be some sort of hijackers on board the plane, some kind of terrorists

2 Suspicious passengers on the plane:

 

They must have done this. When this second theory came forward, 2 passengers of the plane were under suspicion. They were Iranian, and they were suspicious because they were traveling with fake passports.

One of them had the passport stolen from an Italian man. And the other had the stolen passport of an Austrian man. Both passports were stolen in Thailand. It is said that these men wanted to use the stolen passports to go to Europe and settle there.

First, they flew to Peking. Then, they were scheduled to fly from Peking to Europe. The investigation showed that one of the boys' mothers was in Hamburg Germany. Waiting for her son.  In the end, however, this terror theory was rejected because apart from these stolen passports there was no evidence that these individuals were actually terrorists who were planning to conduct a terrorist attack. They simply wanted to go to Europe and settle there. Using the stolen passports. According to Interpol, they are most likely not terrorists.

That's why we come to our third theory. It is said to be the most probable. This is the most likely scenario. According to reports, the passengers and crew on board MH370 lost consciousness due to a lack of oxygen. This includes pilot Zaharie Ahmed Shah and his copilot. They were unconscious too. The entire plane actually passed out. And kept running on autopilot. There must have been some technical malfunctions on autopilot too, but basically, the autopilot kept running till the fuel of the plane ran out. And then the plane crashed into the ocean.

How could this oxygen deficiency have happened?

• There are several theories for it. Some people say there might have been an electrical fire inside the cockpit. Due to this, many systems may have stopped working, including the transponder. Some people think it was an accident that caused the oxygen to run out suddenly.
• Some people blame hijackers here as well. Some kidnappers may have attempted to cause an oxygen shortage. Let’s look at an example to illustrate what could happen. If I have to cite a typical example of this theory, it is said that this plane as soon as it entered the Vietnamese airspace, the pilots noticed some malfunctions, something wrong with the plane.
• So the pilot turned the plane 180°, to take the plane back to Malaysia. However, when the plane took off for Malaysia, there may have been a catastrophic crash that caused a lack of oxygen to the plane, causing everyone onboard to pass out. Because of oxygen deficiency.
• Several systems stopped working and then the plane kept flying on autopilot. Military radar subsequently identified the aircraft. Subsequently, the autopilot abruptly veered southwards, resulting in the aircraft continuing its southward trajectory over the Indian Ocean and eventually colliding with the ocean approximately 2,000 kilometers west of Australia. Initially, numerous theories were circulated regarding the cause of the crash.
• Such as it was abducted by aliens. Or that the US military may have shot down the plane and it was trying to hide the fact. Or that a new Bermuda Triangle may have formed at the place.

Richard Godfrey's new proof about this mystery:

There were many such theories. But obviously, they are not very likely. Many years have passed since this incident. And now in 2022, there's proof to tell us where this plane may actually be. Retired aerospace engineer Richard Godfrey says he's figured out the answer to this mysterious mystery. He used some radio wave tech to predict the plane's flight path. He used data from a British satellite, data from Boeing, oceanographic data from Australia, and new amateur radio wave tech. 

New proof of MH370

He's been tracking back through the data and he's confident they'll find the plane. It's a bit complicated to explain, but it's not too new. Basically, it's a technology that catches the reflection of radio waves when they come out of a source. When a radio wave comes out of the source, it's reflected by the air, and the weak radio waves travel somewhere else. If you can see a plane flying from a radio wave, then you can say it's been spotted.

He built a computer program that can recognize the flight paths of airplanes through weak signals. According to his calculations, the current location of the MH370 is on top of the seventh arc. In his opinion, it is at this point on the seventh arc. It is 4 km under the ocean. As I mentioned earlier, there are many underwater volcanoes and cliffs. You would think this area would have been searched by now.

Conclusion:

• This area has already been searched in Australia’s most expensive search, but it’s possible they overlooked it. Although the second search operation was conducted, by the Ocean Infinity, they hadn't searched this point. 
• Their instruments were more detailed. But Richard trusts his calculations so much that he has pinpointed the exact location with an accuracy of 40 Nautical Miles, Of the location of the plane under the sea. He has proposed that a new search operation should be conducted within a radius of 40 Nautical Miles and they would find it.
• This would have been a very small footprint compared to all of the previous searches. They would have to thoroughly look here. This is good news for the mystery of this flight. There may actually be a solution here. While Richard’s methodology has been criticized by some, the methods he employed to find the plane’s location are not precise enough. 
• That the plane wouldn't be found here. However, Richard estimates that if the operation starts now, it will only take 1 year, and at the end of 2022 we will know whether or not the plane is here. In Richard’s opinion, the plane will be here. Of course, a Drift Analysis was also carried out on the ocean current. So that if the plane had indeed crashed in that area, the location of the various pieces of the plane, would've flowed with the ocean current to reach various places. 
• This drift estimate predicted that some parts would have reached Madagascar and the nearby islands, and those pieces have in fact been found. There have already been 27 fragments of the plane discovered. On a number of islands around the globe. Richard's analysis and this drift study are complementary. So maybe we'll be able to solve the puzzle of what might have happened soon.