Bombshell claims reveal MH370 passengers may have suffocated in a well-planned murder suicide
The pilot may have flown for seven hours after cutting contact with authorities, and a disturbing theory has emerged.
Just 40 minutes into a flight to Beijing on March 8, 2014, pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah bid a cheery “goodnight” to air traffic control in Malaysia – before his plane vanished “into thin air”.Ten years on, despite extensive searches and investigations, the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, with its 239 passengers and crew, remains a mystery.
Now a new documentary, Why Planes Vanish: The Hunt For MH370, examines the theory that captain Zaharie, 53 — who worked for the airline for some 30 years — was behind a planned murder-suicide.
It is speculated he may have flown for seven hours after cutting contact with authorities.
Experts believe Zaharie deliberately depressurised the cabin to “neutralise” passengers and crew, who would have been dead after 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, psychology professor Captain Paul Cullen, from Trinity College Dublin, reveals a worrying number of pilots may be suffering from mental ill health.
He claims “there are people flying who shouldn’t be flying”.
And he adds that a survey of more than 1,000 commercial pilots found “17 per cent met the threshold for moderate depression and 35 per cent the threshold for burnout”.
“None of those should ever be in the cockpit of an aeroplane,” he adds.
‘Feared the worst’
Grace Nathan was studying in Bristol in 2014, and is haunted by the last call from her mum, Anne Daisy, before she boarded flight MH370.
She says: “My mum and I were very close. We are quite an emotionally repressed Asian family.
“But on that particular occasion she decided to tell me that she loved me, and I’m glad that I told her I loved her too.”
When the Boeing 777 took off at 12.42am, Anne was among 227 passengers and 12 crew, including Zaharie and co-pilot First Officer Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27.At 1.19am, as he approached Vietnamese airspace, Zaharie’s last radio contact was to say: “Goodnight Malaysia from 370.”
It was 17 minutes before air traffic controllers in Vietnam realised the plane was missing from their screens, and more than an hour before airline officials were told.
“There are people flying who shouldn’t be flying”
“There was no distress signal, no emergency,” says Fuad Sharuji, former crisis director at Malaysia Airlines.
“We tried to call the flight by various means, including the crew satellite communication system, and none of them worked.”
Anne’s husband Nathan Velayudham, waiting for her at Beijing airport, said he “feared the worst”.
Four hours after the final contact, at 5.30am, a search and rescue mission over the South China Sea was launched, yet nothing was found.
Scientists at London tech firm Inmarsat then discovered a satellite was receiving an hourly signal from MH370 seven hours after contact was lost.
Further data from military radar revealed the plane made a U-turn shortly after cutting off contact, then flew back over Kuala Lumpur and turned for Indonesia.
Jean Luc Marchand, former manager of air traffic research at Eurocontrol, and ex-pilot Patrick Lelly, have been researching the plane’s disappearance using simulators.
They believe only a very experienced pilot could have performed the “challenging manoeuvre”.
Jean Luc tells the documentary that, in order to become “invisible”, the pilot simply had to turn off the transponder, which communicates with air traffic control.
Nine days after the plane vanished a £150million operation, involving Australia, China and Malaysia searched a 120,000 square mile area — the distance they believed MH370 could go before plunging into the Indian Ocean — but to no avail.
On day 508 part of a wing washed up 2,500 miles away at Reunion Island, a French territory near Mauritius. It confirmed the plane had crashed into the sea, but not why.
“Executed by an experienced pilot”
After three years the search was called off. Retired aerospace engineer Richard Godfrey claims tiny disturbances in radio wave signals suggest the plane went down just outside the original search zone.
“I can put a circle on the map with a radius of 30km,” he says.
He is working with Liverpool University to test his system and, if his theory is proven, it is said they may be able to locate the plane “in six months”.
Richard claims that changes of direction and altitude proves there was pilot to “the end”.
Patrick Lelly believes the pilot would have had to depressurise the cabin to prevent crew raising the alarm.
Jean Luc adds: “I am convinced this was executed by an experienced pilot.”
Neither captain Zaharie nor first officer Fariq had a history of mental illness and, while a flight simulator at the pilot’s home suggested he had mapped a route over the Indian Ocean which he then deleted, the reasons remain a blank.
Paul Cullen says: “It’s not easy for a pilot to say he has a mental health issue as, once he does that his medical will be revoked and he can’t fly. The system has to change. That fear has to be removed.”
For Grace and grieving families, the lack of answers compounds their pain. “Ten years on, the overriding feelings are disappointment, betrayal, frustration and anger,” Grace says.
“Until we solve MH370 there’s nothing to say that you or one of your loved ones will take to the skies one day and vanish into thin air.”
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