Netflix doco MH370: The Plane That Disappeared zones in on key theories

Although MH370 had lost all radar communications, the plane was still electronically speaking to a satellite run. These are the latest theories on what happened to it.

It’s one of the greatest aviation mysteries in history: What happened to Flight MH370 on the night it disappeared?

Now a compelling new Netflix docuseries, MH370: The Plane That Disappeared, presents three different possibilities, one in each episode available to stream from March 8.

Journalist Jeff Wise suggests it’s possible a Russian hijacker somehow entered the electronics bay and took control of the plane. Journalist Florence de Changy wonders if MH370 might’ve been approached by a US surveillance aircraft due to a large amount of electronics on board. Both acknowledge these are far-fetched, and the theories are written off by aviation expert Mike Exner.

Another discounted theory is the possibility that the captain of the flight hijacked the plane in a mass murder-suicide plot.

In the early hours of March 8, 2014, Zaharie Ahmad Shah piloted Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 into air just before 12.45am local time.

Production pics from Netflix documentary on the disappearance of MH370., MH370: The Plane That Disappeared. Picture: Netflix

Everything was routine on the Boeing 777 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, China, as the plane readied to leave Malaysian airspace and fly towards Vietnam across the South China Sea.

“Good night, Malaysian 370,” the pilot told air traffic controllers as they readied to relay communications duties to the Vietnamese.

Those were the final words heard from the 239 people on-board flight MH370, which mysteriously lost contact with air traffic control radar a mere minute-and-a-half later.

It was still being tracked on a military radar, however, and it was seen to suddenly divert from the route, sharply turning away from its north-eastern course to head to the west towards the Malay peninsula.

But at 2.22am it reached the edge of the military range, and at about 370kms from Penang, it vanished, without any distress calls, and what followed was the biggest and most expensive aviation search in history.

Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 disappeared nine years ago. Picture: Netflix

Analysis of the satellite communication with the flight established that it likely continued flying for another six hours until around 8.19am – which is when the fuel would have probably run out – with the Malaysian government later concluding that it likely ended up in the southern Indian Ocean. But what actually happened remains in dispute.

The flight had about seven hours of fuel, Fuad Sharuji, former crisis director for Malaysia Airlines, said in archived footage.

Although MH370 had lost all radar communications, the plane was still electronically speaking to a satellite run by a British company called Inmarsat.

“Every hour, the Inmarsat system was checking that the satellite terminal on the aircraft was responding … these pings continued for up to six hours after last contact,” Inmarsat representative Mark Dickinson said in the docuseries.

But the Inmarsat data could only confirm that the flight was still in the air as it did not possess GPS-tracking capabilities. Still, it was able to determine how far away the aircraft was from the satellite with which it had been communicating.

A commission was unable to find undisputed causes that brought MH370 down. Picture: AFP

A final commission report on MH370 noted “the team is unable to determine the real cause for the disappearance.”

“It’s the greatest aviation mystery of all time,” MH370 docuseries director Louise Malkinson said.

“This is a world where we have mobile phones and radar and satellites and tracking, and so to be nearly nine years down the line … and still have so little is extraordinary.”

These are some of the theories explored in the three-part Netflix documentary series MH370: The Plane That Disappeared.

PILOT

Pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah was thought by some to have taken MH370 on a suicide flight.

The most incriminating piece of evidence to the theory that Shah, a veteran pilot, intended to commit a mass-murder suicide by putting the plane down into the Indian Ocean was found on a flight simulator he had inside his home, which made headlines in 2016.

It was there that Shah had reportedly flown a simulation similar to the aeroplane’s suspected, off-charted final course over the ocean a mere month before MH370 was airborne.

But the home simulator data is not quite the “smoking gun” it seems, said Mike Exner of the independent Group, a watchdog panel of aviation experts established to get the truth on the flight’s final hours.

“It’s very odd you would have a simulation end with fuel exhaustion in the Southern Indian Ocean,” he said. “I don’t think taking the simulator data by itself proves a whole lot … The simulator data is not the whole puzzle; it’s just one piece in the puzzle that fits.”

The Netflix documentary delves into the disappearance of MH370. Picture: Netflix

Jeff Wise, an aviation journalist whose theories on the flight became controversial among experts, claimed that the FBI had known of the route in the flight simulator back in 2014.

Wise said that the practicality of Shah single-handedly taking the plane would require an “aggressive and sophisticated” plot, involving locking his co-pilot out of the cockpit, killing radar communications and depressurising the cabin to prevent interference.

Meanwhile, a potential motive remains unclear.

The final report on MH370 found: “There is no evidence to suggest any recent behavioural changes for the [pilot].”

RUSSIAN HIJACKERS

The new docuseries digs into the various theories on what happened to the flight. Picture: AFP

Wise has another working theory on the whereabouts of MH370 – but it sounds closer to the plot of a James Bond movie than anything else.

A few months after the flight was lost, Malaysian Airlines Flight 17, another 777, was shot down by a surface-to-air missile over Ukraine at the same time Russia was invading nearby Crimea.

Checking flight logs, Wise observed that there were three Russian passengers on board MH370 – and all of them were seated near an electrical hatch. He theorised that two of the three could have created a diversion while the other member snuck below deck to remotely control the plane’s flight.

Families of those on board MH370 still do not know the true fate of their loved ones. Picture: AFP

Instead of it being sent south, Wise theorises it was brought to the former Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan.

But that theory was quickly grounded.

“Anyone who gets into the hatch can disable the transponder and disable the communications systems,” Mr Sharuji says. “But it is impossible to fly the aircraft from the avionics compartment.”

Wise’s colleagues were also quick to debunk the idea.

“[The group is] absolutely certain that the plane turned south and not north. It was surprising that Jeff decided to take off on this route,” Mr Exner said.

Wise’s conjectures ended with his removal from the group.

AMERICAN INTERCEPTION

Another wild theory is that the US military, which was doing training exercises at the time in the South China Sea, had downed MH370 at the point where it had first lost radar contact in between Malaysian and Vietnamese airspace.

French journalist Florence de Changy has observed that the cargo delivered “under escort” and subsequently carried by MH370 included 2.5 tonnes of electronic devices – which weren’t scanned prior to loading.

“It’s public knowledge that China was very eager to acquire highly sensitive US technology in the field of surveillance, stealth, drone technology,” de Changy said. “This could be at the heart of what happened to MH370.”

Whatever happened to flight MH370 remains a mystery. Picture: Netflix

America had two radar jamming planes suited with an Airborne Warning & Control System (AWAC) in the vicinity the night MH370 took off. De Changy theorised they could have been used to knock the plane electronically off radar and instructed Shah to land.

When he decided to keep the flight on course, she claimed that “either through a missile strike or a midair collision, MH370 met its fate”.

But, like Wise, de Changy has no proof for her theory – and it’s not backed by the Inmarsat data projections, either. Mr Exner is also critical that has used the thesis to promote her 2021 book, The Disappearing Act: The Impossible Case Of MH370.

“I’m just reluctant to talk about Florence or Jeff or these conspiracy advocates,” Mr Exner, who said he believes the most logical conclusion does not read like a Tom Clancy novel and lies within the Indian Ocean.

“They’re just such a distraction … These are people that don’t really understand the facts and the data.”

Originally published as Netflix doco MH370: The Plane That Disappeared zones in on key theories