Flight MH370: Ten Years On

 Liv Thomson

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On the tenth anniversary of the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, will the mystery ever be solved?

The Facts

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 disappeared on March 8th, 2014, whilst on a flight to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur. 239 people — including the pilot and an eleven-strong crew — vanished.

“Of the 30 suspected MH370 remains, only three have been successfully attributed to the lost plane.”

This began one of the biggest aviation mysteries since Amelia Earhart. The disappearance encouraged the launch of a mammoth multi-national investigation of the southern Indian Ocean.

It would be July 2015 before any hint of the missing Boeing 777 was discovered after a piece of the wing washed up on France’s Reunion Island in the western part of the Indian Ocean. Millions of dollars and three years later, officials called off the search for the ill-fated plane in January 2017. There was nothing to show for their efforts bar the odd piece of debris. Of the 30 suspected MH370 remains, only three have been successfully attributed to the lost plane.

The Theories

Since the flight initially vanished, the Internet has been awash with theories about MH370. Many have been left questioning how a plane can be heard in a time of possibly disappearing flight tracking technology. According to the Aviation Safety Network, countless planes have been lost to the deep sea over the past half-century, making search missions difficult. None, however, have quite captured the interest of the world like Flight MH370 has.

The disappearance of flight MH370, how is it possible an entire plane would go missing in this era of tracking, technology and flight safety?

There are many theories surrounding this, from murder-suicide of the pilot to hijacking. No one knows where the flight has vanished…

— Aloysius (@chweekueh_1) March 8, 2024

A popular theory is that the pilot committed suicide, subsequently downing his plane. The theory goes that 53-year-old Captain Zaharie Shahe cut off communications with air traffic control shortly after light. He then depressurised the cabin, slowly suffocating everyone onboard, before diverting the plane south to an unknown location.

There is also a suggestion that Shahe, along with First Officer Fariq Abdul Hamid, planned to hijack the plane and survive. The whole thing went wrong, which led to the plane’s disappearance. However, this has been widely disputed.

“There has been an “intentional effort to cover up what happened.”

Another theory is that the US government is not only involved in concealing what happened to the plane but is actively responsible for its fate. Flight MH370 reportedly went dark at the border between Malaysian and Vietnamese airspace and could have flown towards Diego Garcia, a military base. Former head of Proteus Airlines, Marc Dugain, theorised that the US military may have perceived MH370 as a threat and, amid fears of another 9/11 event, promptly shot the plane down.

Similar theories posit that the Americans may have shot the plane down to stop its cargo from reaching China.

Families of the lost MH370 passengers have recently expressed concerns that there has been an “intentional effort to cover up what happened.”

The Future

With advancements in aviation technology—and seven years after the first officially ended— investigation, there is hope for a new team to launch a fresh search for Flight MH370.

https://twitter.com/SIKAOFFICIAL1/status/1766187199400206339

New research suggests that the wreckage of MH370 is most likely in a “deep hole” some 1500 kilometres west of Perth. The Malaysian government have expressed their intent to possibly renew the search mission alongside an American marine robotics company. Could there finally be light at the end of the tunnel?

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 is a tragedy that sparked the bolstering of aviation safety. Still, no doubt solving the mystery would bring peace and closure to the families of the 239 people who disappeared that day in 2014. Planes don’t just disappear, after all.

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Featured image courtesy of U.S. Department of Defense Current Photos via Flickr. No changes were made to this image. Image license found here.