The loss of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 has become one of the greatest mysteries of our time in the ten years after it went missing. On March 8, 2014, the jet disappeared shortly after taking off from Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur International Airport en route to Beijing. The plane’s 239 passengers likely perished not long after it abruptly turned westward over the Andaman Sea in the Indian Ocean, killing everyone on board.
About forty minutes after departing Kuala Lumpur for Beijing, MH370 sent its last transmission. The transponder, which allows for the transmission and reception of signals, was quickly disabled, rendering it nearly impossible to track.
Military radar indicated that the plane veered off course, retracing its route over northern Malaysia and the island of Penang before heading into the Andaman Sea in the direction of Sumatra, an Indonesian island.
It veered south when it departed radar range, cutting off all communication.
Mr. Shah, the captain, is a seasoned pilot who began his career with Malaysia Airlines in 1981, and ever since the flight MH370 went missing, speculation has focused on him.
Reports citing his acquaintances as saying he was “clinically depressed” sparked widespread worry about his mental health.
Cranfield University aviation professor Dr. Guy Gratton believes that someone other than the pilot was involved in a hijacking attempt that went awry with MH370.
He said the evidence points to the plane having flown for a considerable distance under control before coming to a low-speed ditching, so it was not a high-speed crash.
The only electrical system left on was the satcom antenna, but it appears that many others were intentionally turned off.
Following accounts of pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah’s problematic personal life leading up to the flight, Dr. Gratton disagrees with the hypothesis that he was guilty.
According to most explanations, MH370 stayed at an average flying altitude before slowly or suddenly plunging towards the ground.
Ten years ago, the prevailing theory held that it did the exact reverse: gradually increasing altitude until it burned up in Earth’s atmosphere.
According to the scenario, some of the plane’s surviving pieces fell back to Earth before being discovered in the Indian Ocean.
According to Dr. Gratton, commercial aircraft have a “service ceiling” of about 45,000 feet, so this couldn’t happen.
Ten years later, no one is closer to the truth.
