MH370
The disappearance of a Malaysia Airlines flight, carrying 239 passengers and crew, is one of the world's biggest aviation mysteries
Synopsis
Dynamics of Plane
Quick View
The Journey
Good Night, Malaysian 370
Missing Radar
The MH370 Vanished
Final Trace
The Search Begins
What is Black Box?
The MH370 Black Box
Passengers Report
The Families
Conspiracy Theories
The End
The essay's timeline is based on Malaysia time (MYT). MYT is 2:30 hours ahead of Indian Standard Time (IST) and 13 hours ahead of Eastern Time (EST).
Dynamics of Plane
Thrust, Drag, Lift and Weight are the four forces that help Plane fly. If the forces of Lift and Thrust are greater than the forces of Weight and Drag, Plane will rise. If the Drag and Weight forces are greater than the Thrust and Lift forces, Plane will crash. Lift pushes something to rise, whereas Drag pull something to fall in response to wind movement.
# Thrust = The force acting in the forward direction of motion that propels a jet engine-powered Plane.
# Drag = The force acting in the opposing direction of motion that uses friction and fluctuations in air pressure to slow Plane.
# Lift = The force that keeps Plane in the air as it passes over and under a wing.
# Weight = The force caused by gravitational attraction of the Earth.
Quick View
On 8th March 2014, a Boeing 777, the MH370, a 239-passenger Malaysia Airlines plane outfitted with advanced technology, lost contact with its transponder and vanished at 1:21 a.m. On 24th March 2014, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak announced that the MH370 had probably crashed in a remote part of the Indian Ocean, with no survivors, although the hunt continues. After 327 days, Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, Director General of Malaysian Department of Civil Aviation, officially declared the MH370 disappearance an accident on 29th January 2015, with all on board assumed dead.
Nothing has been found of the MH370 in terms of bodies, wrecks or the black box and the exact location of the MH370 remains unknown from 8th March, 2014. It's unclear whether we should search for the MH370 based on existing records or on an unproven theory.
The Journey
On 8th March 2014, at 12:42 a.m., the MH370 departed Kuala Lumpur (KL) for Beijing at a height of 35,000 feet. Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah (53), the radio operator, was the pilot while Fariq Abdul Hamid (27), Plane's co-pilot, flew it. Nadira Ramli was Fariq Abdul Hamid's fiancee and Zaharie Ahmad Shah was married to Faizah Khanum Mustafa Khan with three grown children.
10 Malaysian Plane attendants were in charge of 222 adults and 5 children from 14 different countries in the MH370 cabin. Among the 227 passengers were 153 Chinese, 38 Malaysians, 7 Indonesians, 6 Australians, 5 Indians, 4 French, 3 Americans, 2 each from Canada, Iran, New Zealand, Ukraine and 1 each from the Netherlands, Russia, Taiwan. The 5 Indian passengers on board have been identified as Chetana Kolekar (55), Vinod Kolekar (55), Swanand Kolekar (23), Chandrika Sharma (51) and Kranti Shirsath (44).
The journey was scheduled to last 5 hours and 34 minutes, using an estimated 37,200 kg of jet fuel. Plane had 49,100 kg of jet fuel ready, with Plane time of 7 hours and 31 minutes, including reserves. The extra jet fuel allows Plane to divert to different air terminals, such as Jinan Yaoqiang International Airport and Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport, which would require 4,800 kg and 10,700 kg, respectively, to reach from Beijing.
Good Night, Malaysian 370
Zaharie Ahmad Shah radioed that they had levelled at 35,000 feet, which is not required for Radar-monitored airspace when the criterion is to report departing rather than reaching an altitude. At 1:07 a.m., the final automated data transmission of the MH370 revealed a regular path all the way to Beijing. Plane flew over the Malaysian coast and into the South China Sea heading for Vietnam. Zaharie Ahmad Shah re-reported the airliner at 35,000 feet.
At 1:19 a.m., KL Air Traffic Controller (ATC) radioed "Malaysian 370, Please contact Ho Chi Minh 120.9 MHz, Good Night," handing control over to HCM ATC. "Good Night, Malaysian 370," Zaharie Ahmad Shah replied, but he didn't re-read the frequency as he should have.
Note - Ho Chi Minh (HCM) is one of Vietnam’s main cities, named after North Vietnam’s first leader.
Raw impulses from airborne objects power the primary Radar while the secondary Radar is based on information contained in each Plane's transponder signal, such as Plane's identity and altitude. After communicating with the HCM ATC, the MH370 transponder stopped communicating and dropped off from KL ATC's display. The pilots never contacted HCM and at 1:21 a.m., 39 minutes after takeoff, the MH370 vanished from secondary Radar and sends no distress signal or message. KL ATC was dealing with other traffic, assuming that the MH370 was somewhere outside their range, in the hands of HCM. Meanwhile, HCM ATC saw the MH370 enter their territory before disappearing from Radar.
HCM ATC appears to have misread a legal agreement that required HCM to promptly notify KL if Plane handed over was more than five minutes late checking in. Finally, HCM ATC notifies KL ATC of the MH370 signal loss at 1:38 a.m. HCM ATC made a broadcast call on emergency frequencies at 6:51 a.m., requesting that MH370 call them. ATC attempted to contact Plane several times but was unsuccessful each time. There was a period of chaos and incompetence after that.
The KL Aeronautical Rescue Coordination Centre (ARCC) should have been notified within an hour of the disappearance, but the emergency response did not begin until 06:32 a.m. The Plane would have landed in Beijing by this time.
Final Trace
Malaysian defence radar picked up indications of Plane, possible the MH370, about 2:15 a.m. in the Andaman Sea, some 320 kilometres north-west of Penang Island, according to reports. At 2:40 a.m., ATC informed the Malaysia Airlines that the MH370 had vanished from Radar. At 7:24 a.m., Malaysia Airlines posted on Facebook about Plane's disappearance.
Following the loss of Radar, data from MH370 was picked up by INMARSAT British satellite above the Indian Ocean in the form of seven automatic "handshakes" between the MH370 and a base station in Perth. The first “handshake” happened at 02:28 a.m. Last one “half-handshake” happened at 08:19 a.m. and that was the final transmission from the MH370. The event lasted 7 hours and 38 minutes, starting at 12:42 a.m. and ending at 08:19 a.m.
Note - Handshakes are defined as typical radio signals sent to the satellite or base station on a regular basis by all communications systems.
The Search Begins
According to secondary Radar records obtained from ATC systems and partly supported by the data from the Malaysian Air Force, the MH370 flew south-west across the Malay Peninsula, pitching down around the Penang Island. It then flew north-west over the Malacca Strait and into the Andaman Sea, out of Radar range. However, the Indonesian Air Force stated no Plane were detected in the Malacca Strait by its Radar in Sumatra, which is closest to Penang on the Malaysian Peninsula. The path change of the plane took more than an hour, indicating that this was not a typical hijacking, accident, or pilot suicide event, implying that the MH370 activities were deliberate.
The initial search, which included ships and planes from multiple countries, began on 8th March 2014, in the South China Sea and Gulf of Thailand, between Malaysia and Vietnam. The MH370, on the other hand, vanished over a great distance from its original destination. According to the reports, Plane had flown significantly longer and farther in a completely different path, leading investigators in uncharted directions.
Later, the MH370 and INMARSAT British satellite communication network analysis became the key source of information concerning the MH370's location. After the MH370 vanished from Military Radar and ATC and deviated from its scheduled Plane path, officials analysed INMARSAT satellite data and decided that Plane had most likely flown out over the Indian Ocean. Following this declaration, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) formally moved search efforts to the South Indian Ocean, west of Australia, on 18th March 2014, and the initial search in the South China Sea was halted.
Several pieces of debris thought to be from the MH370 have been recovered in various countries, but no confirmed results or progress in the search have been made. Plane was never discovered and the authorities were unable to provide a solid explanation for what happened to it. Plane may have sunk to the bottom of the South Indian Ocean without any clearance reports, according to the research.
The Joint Agency Co-ordination Centre (JACC) in charge of the search effort terminated its activities in 17th January 2017, after a three year search spanning 120,000 km2 of ocean failed to locate Plane. A subsequent pursuit, led by private firm Ocean Infinity in January 2018, the search activities were terminated in 29th May 2018, with no results. At this point, there are no official systematised search activities for the MH370, but many people are fundraising and spending their own money in the hopes of finding the missing MH370.
Black Box
It is a device that records sounds from a cockpit and can withstand Plane crash. It normally consists of two distinct boxes: Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and Flight Data Recorder (FDR). It's actually orange, but it's called black. Black Box is usually fitted in Plane's tail section. The Crash Survivable Memory Unit (CSMU) stores data from both CVR and FDR on stacked memory boards.
CVR keeps a two-hour auto-deleting loop of cockpit audio including crew chats, detects warning messages if there is an incident. FDR stores 25 hours of Plane data that includes Plane parameters, instrument readings and Plane control actions, all of which give operational information, but it will not reveal any important informations because no failures can explain what exactly happened. At best, it will provide trivial answers such as the precise moment of Plane's depressurisation, the length of time it was depressurised, how the satellite box was powered down and then switched back on.
The MH370 Black Box
Plane's Black Box, which can operate at depths of up to 6,000 metres, is approved to transmit signals for 30 days after a crash, though experts believe it could last up to two weeks longer. It's worth noting that Black Box from the MH370 has never been found in the last seven years.
An Underwater Locating Beacon (ULB) device mounted on FDR's battery was set to expire in December 2012 and there was no evidence that it had been replaced with, lowering the chances of finding the MH370. On the other hand, CVR's battery had been replaced and was due to expire in June, 2014. While batteries may continue to function after their official expiration date, they may lose their effectiveness, according to the report, which called this a “oversight.” However, Black Box signals were picked up at the desired location during the initial search, but they turned out to be phantom pings because the source of the signals location was unknown.
Passengers Report
Police focused their investigation on the MH370 crew, passengers, ground crew, requiring background checks on everyone on board. All 227 passengers on MH370 were cleared of any involvement in the hijacking after a thorough investigation. Among the 227 passengers, three passengers, Iranian Pouria Nour Mohammad (19), Iranian Seyed Mohammed Rezar Delawar (29) and Malaysian Mohd Khairul Mari Selamat (29) sparked confusion among Public, despite authorities saying there was no suspicious behaviour involving those three.
According to the reports, “Pouria Nour Mohammad and Seyed Mohammed Rezar Delawar were friends who travelled on forged Austrian and Italian passports to seek asylum with the hope of starting a new life in Europe and reuniting with their families. The lone passenger with technical flying experience was Mohd Khairul Mari Selamat, who worked for a private charter Plane company. Those three almost certainly did not carry out a terrorist assault”.
Note - Refugees fleeing to another country while in need of refuge and protection without supporting documentation should not be penalised, according to Article 31(1) of the Geneva Refugees Convention, which safeguards the right of people seeking asylum.
The MH370 Families
Families from four continents have been affected because no official findings of the MH370 have been made. The MH370 passenger’s families said "Officials who failed to deal with the emergency by failing to follow protocols in the initial hour of the disappearance, trailed by the need to gather the wrecks, are probably going to hold the key to the solutions. Legislatures guarantee to help us in finding solutions yet it's conceivable that authorities have more data than they're willing to share and we are trapped because of the authorities inability to act the correct way”.
Conspiracy Theories
More than 100 books and blogs have been written about the disappearance of the MH370, the majority of which examine a wide range of conspiracy theories but none of which present any actual proof to support their claims, leading to pseudo activities.
A number of conspiracy theories have surfaced, asking whether a modern Plane might vanish in the blink of an eye due to a mix of technology and human failure. Few frequently discussed conspiracy theories regarding the MH370 disappearance are breakdowns of the electrical system, malfunctions of the control system, stolen for terrorist attack, sucked into a black hole, explosion of cargo, suicide of a pilot, insurance coverage, sunk in the sea, alien invaders, bird strikes, meteorites, lightning, bombing, shooting, skyjack, smoke and fire.
There are also other theories like “Pilot's purposely disabled Plane's communication system before the path was diverted for reasons known to them, Taliban hijacked the MH370 for a cargo shipment, the MH370 landed at US Military Base Diego Garcia for a research, an unintended reduction in the pressure of a sealed system led to uncontrolled decompression, the MH370 was swapped with the MH17 for unknown reasons”.
Note - On July 17, 2014, Russian-backed separatists used a Russian-made missile launcher to shoot down the MH17 over Ukraine.
The End
I believe that the MH370 problem may not be difficult to solve and the answers may be easily available, but that they are being hidden for unknown reasons. So, the MH370 is the biggest aviation cover-up ever? This will be the case unless and until the vanishing act is solved. Even if we never uncover the truth, the mystery surrounding the MH370 will occupy our imaginations for the rest of our lives.