Malaysia airlines MH370 with 239 people on board, 8 March 2014 #26

[deugirtni]

Nine years on, families urge new search for missing Malaysia plane MH370

Families called on the Malaysian government to allow Ocean Infinity to mount a new search.

www.reuters.com

‘The greatest aviation mystery of all time’: what really happened to flight MH370?

A Netflix docuseries tries to untangle the many theories surrounding the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines flight that shocked the world

www.theguardian.com

Wow, nine years. And nothing yet.

 

[dotr]

''MH370: The Plane That Disappeared | Official Trailer | Netflix''​

Mar 5, 2023
''Ahead of the ninth anniversary of the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 - families are calling for a renewed search effort to find the missing plane. Relatives group 'Voice370' are asking the Malaysian government to allow US seabed exploration firm Ocean Infinity to undertake a new search.''

 

[dotr]

Cannot deny that i still feel somehow that the plane is somewhere cold. speculation, imo, fwiw.

''Work proceeded deep into the winter. In the four days before the following image was taken on January 9, 2014, the temperature fluctuated between -15F and +14F.''


''By March, the building was gone and everything had been bulldozed flat. Eight days after MH370 vanished, it looked like this.
Construction experts told me these images most likely show site remediation: taking apart a building and burying the debris. Yet why, after decades, did the Russians suddenly need to clear this one lonely spot, in the heart of a frigid winter, finishing just before MH370 disappeared?''

Very lengthy and interesting article, imo, rbbm

How Crazy Am I to Think I Actually Know Where That Malaysia Airlines Plane Is?

In the year since the vanishing of MH370, I appeared on CNN more than 50 times, watched my spouse’s eyes glaze over at dinner, and fell in with a group of borderline-obsessive amateur aviation

nymag.com

''2015 by Jeff Wise
What made MH370 challenging to cover was, first, that the event was unprecedented and technically complex and, second, that the officials were remarkably untrustworthy. For instance, the search started over the South China Sea, naturally enough, but soon after, Malaysia opened up a new search area in the Andaman Sea, 400 miles away. Why? Rumors swirled that military radar had seen the plane pull a 180. The Malaysian government explicitly denied it, but after a week of letting other countries search the South China Sea, the officials admitted that they’d known about the U-turn from day one.

Of course, nothing turned up in the Andaman Sea, either. But in London, scientists for a British company called Inmarsat that provides telecommunications between ships and aircraft realized its database contained records of transmissions between MH370 and one of its satellites for the seven hours after the plane’s main communication system shut down. Seven hours! Maybe it wasn’t a crash after all—if it were, it would have been the slowest in history.''

''Whether the plane went to Baikonur or elsewhere in Kazakhstan, my suspicion fell on Russia. With technically advanced satellite, avionics, and aircraft-manufacturing industries, Russia was a paranoid fantasist’s dream.24 (The Russians, or at least Russian-backed militia, were also suspected in the downing of Malaysia Flight 17 in July.) Why, exactly, would Putin want to steal a Malaysian passenger plane? I had no idea. Maybe he wanted to demonstrate to the United States, which had imposed the first punitive sanctions on Russia the day before, that he could hurt the West and its allies anywhere in the world. Maybe what he was really after were the secrets of one of the plane’s passengers.25 Maybe there was something strategically crucial in the hold. Or maybe he wanted the plane to show up unexpectedly somewhere someday, packed with explosives. There’s no way to know. That’s the thing about MH370 theory-making: It’s hard to come up with a plausible motive for an act that has no apparent beneficiaries.

As it happened, there were three ethnically Russian men aboard MH370, two of them Ukrainian-passport holders from Odessa.26 Could any of these men, I wondered, be special forces or covert operatives? As I looked at the few pictures available on the internet, they definitely struck me as the sort who might battle Liam Neeson in midair.''

''About the two Ukrainians, almost nothing was available online.Fig. 27 I was able to find out a great deal about the Russian,Fig. 28 who was sitting in first class about 15 feet from the E/E-bay hatch.Fig. 29 He ran a lumber company in Irkutsk, and his hobby was technical diving under the ice of Lake Baikal.30 I hired Russian speakers from Columbia University to make calls to Odessa and Irkutsk, then hired researchers on the ground.''




Fig. 29. At position B. The Ukrainians were at D and C—underneath the satellite antenna. Photo: Seatguru.com

 

[Ceska]

Glad I found this discussion, I have followed MH370 since it went missing. I watch a lot of documentaries about airline safety and accidents, etc. This one has always bothered me from the start. I have my fingers crossed that there will be another search.

 

[pandorabox]

How can a Malaysia airlines flight MH370 disappear out of no where ? Sleuths write what you think about this missing flight and see if we can connect some dots/facts about what’s going on . . . .

 

[pentimento]

I just saw the Netflix series last night. I have to admit that I thought of US military involvement when they were talking about Vietnamese air space, but who knows. Something doesn't seem right with the official version though. Why did the FBI not reveal that the pilot had simulated that route on his home flight simulation equipment until much later, and why was the FBI in possession of that information to begin with? Were there Americans on that flight, or am I missing something?

 

[WingsOverTX]

I just saw the Netflix series last night. I have to admit that I thought of US military involvement when they were talking about Vietnamese air space, but who knows. Something doesn't seem right with the official version though. Why did the FBI not reveal that the pilot had simulated that route on his home flight simulation equipment until much later, and why was the FBI in possession of that information to begin with? Were there Americans on that flight, or am I missing something?

One adult & two children were American citizens, according to this article.

Details emerge about American, other passengers on Malaysia flight

The mother of the only American adult on board Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 spoke out Saturday.

www.usatoday.com

 

[WingsOverTX]

How can a Malaysia airlines flight MH370 disappear out of no where ? Sleuths write what you think about this missing flight and see if we can connect some dots/facts about what’s going on . . . .

I think the debris found so far tells exactly what happened. I've read a lot of theories since debris started being found that completely ignore the debris. So completely, it's ludicrous.

Ocean currents brought that debris to the West/Northwest of the crash site in a very remote area of the Southern Indian Ocean off the coast of Australia.

We still don't have the tech to properly explore this area of ocean, especially its depths. Can't find anything if you can't have a proper look.

Any theory that ignores the found debris & the physics of how it drifted there is worthless IMO.

I think the pilot most likely took everyone out on a personal suicide mission. He had control of the plane & a mayday was never called.

IIRC, he locked out the co-pilot from the cabin (perhaps this is just speculation).

To me, it's not a mystery. It's just very unfortunate so much time has passed & still we have no tech to explore the ocean depths to find anything that might be there.

At this point, I'm not certain the kind of proof that would satisfy the families of those lost still even exists. The ocean - the 2nd greatest enemy of finding the truth other than the pilot - has won. Nature does that sometimes.

Too many lives were lost that night, may they rest in peace.
JMO

 

[Ceska]

I hope they will start a new search, and take a closer look at the satellite pings. It's encouraging that debris was found, I think they may be close to the area. The Malaysian Air Force really dropped the ball when the plane passed through their military radars, why did they not intercept. The Netflix documentary was interesting, but it's all a lot of opinions and theories, I would rather stick with facts, although I think the team of pilots and scientists that formed a group (the Independent Group), to search for what happened to MH370, is on the right path.

 

[Lauri_]

I just saw no evidence that the pilot could have been suicidal. His life seemed to all he wanted. No financial problems, no big looming secrets that have come out over the years....why would a seemingly decent person just decide to kill himself and a couple of hundred people? Just questions in my head...

 

[dotr]

March 10 2023 by JOY SAHA

The 6 most shocking theories surrounding the disappearance of MH370

Nine years later, the tragic mystery continues for family members of those on the plane that went missing

www.salon.com

''MH370 isn't the first major case of an aircraft gone missing. But, it's certainly the most bizarre. Almost a decade after the incident, the mysterious case is revisited in Netflix's docuseries "MH370: The Plane That Disappeared." The three-part series spotlights several theories from investigators, journalists and family members on the plane's disappearance. Keep in mind, "MH370" doesn't offer a clear answer to the mystery at hand, but it does offer some new insight into what may have happened on that flight.

Here are six theories from the docuseries:''
01
MH370 pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah flew a suicide route

"MH370: The Plane That Disappeared" (Netflix)
''Jeff Wise, an aviation journalist, suggests a theory involving MH370's pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah, who was believed to have deliberately downed the plane.

Shortly after one in the morning, Shah flew over the South China Sea and sent his final signal to air traffic control in Kuala Lumpur before entering Vietnamese airspace. Wise's conjecture follows: He suspects that Shah then prompted his co-pilot to leave the cockpit and locked its door. Then around 1:20 a.m., Shah turned off all the plane's electronics, causing it to go off radar, and directed the aircraft back towards the Malaysian peninsula.

At this time, Shah is still by himself and his co-pilot remains locked out of the cockpit. It's believed that Shah began depressurizing the cabin, thus causing the emergency oxygen masks to go down in the cabin. Unbeknownst to the passengers, their masks were useless as the plane's oxygen generators only worked for about 15 minutes. Shah, however, wore a more "sophisticated, longer lasting" oxygen mask, which allowed him to continue flying the plane until his fuel ran out. After six hours of flight, the plane's engine stopped running and Shah dove the plane, killing everyone on board.

Despite the plausibility of this theory, Wise still had doubts:

"It is worth pointing out that there have been a handful of cases of pilots who have decided to kill their passengers," Wise said. "But, there has never been a case that someone has taken six hours to commit mass-murder suicide. I started to wonder, maybe it wasn't Zaharie after all."

 

[Lauri_]

MH370 not deliberately crashed by pilot, say investigators

Australian investigators reject claims the missing passenger jet was deliberately crashed into the sea.

www.bbc.com

 

[pentimento]

In the Netflix serious, somewhere towards the beginning, it was mentioned that one the relatives got a call from their family member on the flight shortly after it had gone missing. Apparently though, it stopped ringing before they answered it. Does anyone recall that? There was some talk about the phones and then it was never mentioned again IIRC, and I didn't hear about it in any of the theories presented.

 

[Ceska]

In the Netflix serious, somewhere towards the beginning, it was mentioned that one the relatives got a call from their family member on the flight shortly after it had gone missing. Apparently though, it stopped ringing before they answered it. Does anyone recall that? There was some talk about the phones and then it was never mentioned again IIRC, and I didn't hear about it in any of the theories presented.

Yes, I remember that in the documentary. It made me wonder, too! Odd though, since I don't recall it being mentioned anywhere else in other articles or interviews about MH370, it seems like an important thing to me, so I wonder if it is accurate (I would like to learn more about it). Apparently the person who received the call did not answer, which makes no sense to me, I remember the person who was narrating that segment of the Netflix documentary stated the person who had the cell phone that started to ring (from a missing family member) made some sort of comment about whether or not she should answer it, and someone told her to "yes pick up the call", but in waiting the phone then stopped ringing. To me, that just made no sense, so I wonder how credible that story is. If you had a missing loved one, calling your cell phone, after their disappearance, you would obviously pick up immediately and not just let it ring and ask someone whether or not you should answer, so I am rather skeptical. Since this has never been mentioned anywhere before, I wonder if maybe the documentary embellished a bit, like some documentaries seem to do.

 

[jennytrevor]

Call of the Void: Seven years on, what do we know about the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines…

“Good night, Malaysian three seven zero.”

admiralcloudberg.medium.com

A great article on this case

 

[dotr]

In the Netflix serious, somewhere towards the beginning, it was mentioned that one the relatives got a call from their family member on the flight shortly after it had gone missing. Apparently though, it stopped ringing before they answered it. Does anyone recall that? There was some talk about the phones and then it was never mentioned again IIRC, and I didn't hear about it in any of the theories presented.

2014

https://www.cnn.com/2014/03/18/travel/malaysia-airlines-no-phone-calls/index.html

''CNN —
It’s a popular question on social media: Why didn’t passengers on board the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 make mobile calls?

Many recall that when United Flight 93 was hijacked on September 11, 2001, passengers were able to make two cell phone calls during the flight’s final moments. Several other calls were made using airphones.

If metadata was detected from cell phones on Flight 370, surely it would shed more light on the missing plane’s flight path?

The plane may have been flying too high or too fast to register with cell towers, according to telecoms experts, but careful analysis of the passengers’ cell phone records will need to be completed to be certain.''

2014

'Phantom call' theory dismissed by experts | CNN

The mystery of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 appeared to deepen as reports emerged that passengers' cell phones continued to ring long after the flight went missing Saturday.

www.cnn.com

''CNN —
The mystery of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 appeared to deepen as reports emerged that passengers’ cell phones continued to ring long after the flight went missing Saturday.

After the torment of not knowing what has happened to their loved ones, relatives of MH370 passengers had resorted to calling their phones, and were greeted with ringtones.''

''Kagan told Wolf Blitzer that the technology meant he couldn’t speculate on what ringing phones in this situation could mean.

“Just because you’re getting ringing, just because the signs that we see on these cell phones, that’s no proof that there’s any – that’s just the way the networks work.”

 

[Charlot123]

I just saw no evidence that the pilot could have been suicidal. His life seemed to all he wanted. No financial problems, no big looming secrets that have come out over the years....why would a seemingly decent person just decide to kill himself and a couple of hundred people? Just questions in my head...

It is interesting, but Malaysians whose posts I read elsewhere have a different opinion of him. First, Shah was divorced and lived with his wife under the same roof. (Which in itself is odd, he was not old and if dating, why under the same roof?). He was quietly drinking. The most interesting thing is his support of Anwar Ibrahim, the opposition leader - I read two versions, one, that Ibrahim was Shah's distant relative whose politics Shah was passionate about, and two, that he was Ibrahim's personal friend.

Either way, Shah was passionate about politics and had much hope for Ibrahim's party that is considered way more democratic in Malaysia. It is in power now, but 2014 was very much different.

So…on March 7 2014, Ibrahim goes to prison on fictitious charges (Google Anwar Ibrahim’s case, it was indicative of profound lack of democracy in Malaysia, and probably, 2014 was a bad time for anyone hoping for progressive reform). Early on the next day Shah takes off on that MH370 flight.
To me this form of extreme political protest looks feasible. JMO.

This is what Malaysian observers on slate were writing about the case then.

Don’t Believe the Malaysian Government’s Claim That the MH370 Pilot Was a Zealot

There is an axiom in Malaysian politics: Eventually everything comes back to Anwar Ibrahim. So, the longer that the fumbling and inept investigation...

slate.com

 

[deugirtni]

It is interesting, but Malaysians whose posts I read elsewhere have a different opinion of him. First, Shah was divorced and lived with his wife under the same roof. (Which in itself is odd, he was not old and if dating, why under the same roof?). He was quietly drinking. The most interesting thing is his support of Anwar Ibrahim, the opposition leader - I read two versions, one, that Ibrahim was Shah's distant relative whose politics Shah was passionate about, and two, that he was Ibrahim's personal friend.

Either way, Shah was passionate about politics and had much hope for Ibrahim's party that is considered way more democratic in Malaysia. It is in power now, but 2014 was very much different.

So…on March 7 2014, Ibrahim goes to prison on fictitious charges (Google Anwar Ibrahim’s case, it was indicative of profound lack of democracy in Malaysia, and probably, 2014 was a bad time for anyone hoping for progressive reform). Early on the next day Shah takes off on that MH370 flight.
To me this form of extreme political protest looks feasible. JMO.

This is what Malaysian observers on slate were writing about the case then.

Don’t Believe the Malaysian Government’s Claim That the MH370 Pilot Was a Zealot

There is an axiom in Malaysian politics: Eventually everything comes back to Anwar Ibrahim. So, the longer that the fumbling and inept investigation...

slate.com

Does it make sense to react that way to political events, but yet not state that one is reacting that way due to political events?

 

[Charlot123]

Does it make sense to react that way to political events, but yet not state that one is reacting that way due to political events?

I think he wanted to succeed, and to succeed, the plane had to disappear for a few hours and it be not noticed or caught. In this case, yes, you disappear quietly. Most people in Malaysia of 2014, knowing that Shah was at Ibrahim’s process on March 7 and the plane disappeared on March 8, probably, understood. Then-Malaysian government was not interested in revealing the connection because it would draw the world’s attention to their inhumane dealing with the opposition. Ibrahim, currently a PM, never approved of political extremism, rather, the total opposite. (He was tortured and beaten up in prison, had to undergo a surgery in Germany afterwards, so arrest was not an easy time for him.)

Most important - if till now no one can find the plane or the black box, it became a mystery and every year we have the same discussions, doesn’t it mean that in a way, Shah succeeded? I would not ever think of protesting at the cost of 227 lives, but interestingly, Shah may have not been alone. Let me find that article.

 

[dotr]

I think he wanted to succeed, and to succeed, the plane had to disappear for a few hours and it be not noticed or caught. In this case, yes, you disappear quietly. Most people in Malaysia of 2014, knowing that Shah was at Ibrahim’s process on March 7 and the plane disappeared on March 8, probably, understood. Then-Malaysian government was not interested in revealing the connection because it would draw the world’s attention to their inhumane dealing with the opposition. Ibrahim, currently a PM, never approved of political extremism, rather, the total opposite. (He was tortured and beaten up in prison, had to undergo a surgery in Germany afterwards, so arrest was not an easy time for him.)

Most important - if till now no one can find the plane or the black box, it became a mystery and every year we have the same discussions, doesn’t it mean that in a way, Shah succeeded? I would not ever think of protesting at the cost of 227 lives, but interestingly, Shah may have not been alone. Let me find that article.

Maybe this one?
2014

Read the translated Facebook posts of Malaysia Airlines flight 370's pilot

What Zaharie Ahmad Shah's Facebook page tells us about his politics and interests.

www.motherjones.com

''There has been much speculation recently about Shah, from his Muslim religion—friends say he was not especially committed to it—to his support for Anwar Ibrahim, the leader of Malaysia’s popular opposition party. A Malaysian court convicted Ibrahim of sodomy charges on March 7, the day before the flight disappeared, a charge his supporters contend was trumped up by Malaysia’s ruling party. Some have theorized that Ibrahim’s conviction was possibly a motivating factor in the plane’s disappearance. There’s a lot of conflicting and erroneous information about Shah out there (for instance, it appears he did not attend Ibrahim’s trial, as has been reported), but a Facebook page that appears to belong to the aviator provides some useful insight into his politics and interests.?

The page was taken down sometime on Sunday or Monday, but reappeared late Tuesday afternoon. (Facebook would not comment on the record about why Shah’s account went dark.''