Experts reveal theories of what really happened to flight MH370

An expert has weighed in on one of the most baffling details regarding the shocking disappearance of doomed flight MH370.

It has been 11 years since Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 signed off from Malaysian air traffic control with the now-infamous words: “Good night Malaysia three seven zero” as the Boeing 777 crossed into Vietnamese airspace.

The plane, which was travelling from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia to Beijing in China carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew on March 8, 2014, was never heard from again.

Two minutes after that final message from the plane’s Malaysian pilot, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, the aircraft vanished from radar screens.

Despite the plane “going dark”, Malaysian military aircraft trackers were still able to follow MH370, and noticed the plane suddenly turn sharply to the left, crossing back into Malaysian airspace before flying another seven hours into the middle of the Indian Ocean where it is presumed to have run out of fuel and crashed.

A number of searches were launched following the disappearance of Flight MH370, including by Australia, which searched for three years covering 120 square kilometres of the southern Indian Ocean in a desperate bid to find the plane and passengers, which included eight Australians.

In 2017, however, the Australian authorities called off the search.

“Despite every effort using the best science available, cutting edge technology, as well as modelling and advice from highly skilled professionals who are the best in their field, unfortunately, the search has not been able to locate the aircraft,” authorities said at the time.

“The decision to suspend the underwater search has not been taken lightly nor without sadness.”

Now, 11 years later, a new search has been launched in the hopes of finally locating MH370 and the 239 people aboard by the British maritime exploration firm Ocean Infinity.

Malaysian transport Minister Anthony Loke recently said that the Malaysian government is in the process of signing a contract with Ocean Infinity and that Malaysia welcomed “the proactiveness of Ocean Infinity to deploy their ships”.

US marine robotics company Ocean Infinity will search again for MH370. Picture: 60 Minutes

Malaysian transport Minister Anthony Loke said that the Malaysian government is in the process of signing a contract with Ocean Infinity. Picture: 60 Minutes

What happened to MH370?

Richard Godfrey, the author of the website www.mh370search.com and a retired aerospace engineer, told news.com.au that there have been nearly 150 books written about MH370, each with their own theories.

“The various theories range from the bizarre, like MH370 was taken by aliens, to the conspiratorial, like there was a plot involving several governments and secret service agents,” Mr Godfrey said.

“There are the sinister, like MH370 was taken by the Chinese, the Russians or the Americans. The protective, that it could not possibly have been the Captain as he was such a nice person, and the clairvoyant who had a vision and saw MH370.”

British aerospace engineer Richard Godfrey.

A Malaysian Airlines plane passes a Chinese Airforce Ilyushin II-76 at Perth Airport for search for missing Malaysian plane MH370.

He added that there were also unhelpful theories by members of the public claiming to have spotted MH370 on Google Earth, and documentaries that mixed different and confusing theories together.

One well-discussed theory is that the US military either shot down MH370 or that it landed on Diego Garcia – an island in the British Indian Ocean Territory used by the US and the United Kingdom as a military base.

This theory suggests that the US believed that the plane had been hijacked by terrorists and presented a security risk, although experts have roundly debunked this as the plane did not have enough fuel to fly near Diego Garcia and there is no credible evidence that it was either hijacked or shot down.

Australian RAAF Orion P3 searching southern Indian Ocean 2400Kms south west of Perth, for MH370. Picture: Supplied

Another hijacking theory is that the plane was flown to Kazakhstan on the orders of Russian president Vladimir Putin, although flight data shows MH370 turning in the opposite direction away from Kazakhstan towards the Indian Ocean.

In addition to the theory that aliens could have been involved, there has also been speculation that the plane was swallowed by a black hole.

“I only deal with scientific research based on hard data and evidence,” Mr Godfrey said.

“We know from Boeing how far and how long a Boeing 777 can fly and how long it can stay in the air. We know from Malaysia Airlines engineering exactly how much fuel was on board and what the fuel efficiency of both engines on the actual aircraft was.”

A relative of passengers on Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 cries after hearing the news that the plane plunged into Indian Ocean at a hotel in Beijing on March 24, 2014. Picture: Goh Chai Hin/AFP

Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, the pilot of Malaysian Airlines MH370.

Mr Godfrey also said that there was a wealth of comprehensive data to draw from regarding the flight’s path and performance, including Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B) data, radar data and Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) data.

“We [also] know from the Inmarsat satellite data that the aircraft continued to fly for seven hours 37 minutes into the Southern Indian Ocean until fuel exhaustion,” he said.

He added that, from 43 items of floating debris that have been recovered from around the Indian Ocean, it was clear that MH370 crashed.

Officials inspecting a large piece of debris found in Tanzania which was confirmed as a part of a wing flap from MH370. Picture: Handout/ATSB/AFP

“We know from the drift analysis, where the floating debris most probably originated and the general crash area [ …] When all these facts align, then you have a good case,” he said.

One of the theories most embraced by experts has been that Pilot Shah, or perhaps co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid, deliberately turned off the plane’s tracking devices before manually taking control of the aircraft and flying until it ran out of fuel as part of a murder-suicide plot.

You Tube tribute of Malaysian Airlines pilot Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, posted by his family showing his life.

When police raided Shah’s home in Malaysia, they found a flight simulator system which showed that he had flown a simulated route into the middle of the Indian Ocean which was similar to the flight path of MH370 – although there was no suicide note found and no suggestion from anyone who knew Shah that he had any reason to plan such a diabolical act.

Alvin Lie, the head of the Indonesian Air Transport Service Users Association, told news.com.au the case was baffling in the modern age.

YouTube CCTV footage of MH370 co-pilot Fariq Hamid going through the detectors and being frisked just before boarding the ill-fated flight.

“From a technological standpoint, it doesn’t make sense and it is not logical with all the technology available nowadays. It is easy to track a plane, even if its own tracking device has been disabled,” he said.

“What is even more odd, is that it flew from Malaysia into Vietnamese airspace and then back into Malaysia and the border with Indonesia, and then went missing.

“In the Southeast Asian region we have a technology superpower which is Singapore.”

Lie said that, when other flights had crashed in the region, such as Adam Air Flight 574 which plunged into the Makassar Strait in Indonesia on January 1, 2007, killing all 102 people aboard, the Singaporean authorities had been able to locate it almost immediately using their air tracking data.

“I don’t have any theories about the plane, and I am not a conspiracy theorist, but it is very odd that a plane as big as that can vanish without a trace,” he said.

Aisyah Llewellyn is a freelance journalist based in Indonesia

Originally published as Experts reveal theories of what really happened to flight MH370