A Startlingly Simple Theory About the Missing Malaysia Airlines Jet
Quote:There has been a lot of speculation about Malaysia Airlines Flight
370. Terrorism, hijacking, meteors. I cannot believe the analysis on
CNN; it’s almost disturbing. I tend to look for a simpler explanation,
and I find it with the 13,000-foot runway at Pulau Langkawi.
We know the story of MH370: A loaded Boeing 777 departs at midnight
from Kuala Lampur, headed to Beijing. A hot night. A heavy aircraft.
About an hour out, across the gulf toward Vietnam, the plane goes dark,
meaning the transponder and secondary radar tracking go off. Two days
later we hear reports that Malaysian military radar (which is a primary
radar, meaning the plane is tracked by reflection rather than by
transponder interrogation response) has tracked the plane on a
southwesterly course back across the Malay Peninsula into the Strait of
Malacca.
The left turn is the key here. Zaharie Ahmad Shah1 was a
very experienced senior captain with 18,000 hours of flight time. We old
pilots were drilled to know what is the closest airport of safe harbor
while in cruise. Airports behind us, airports abeam us, and airports
ahead of us. They’re always in our head. Always. If something happens,
you don’t want to be thinking about what are you going to do–you already
know what you are going to do. When I saw that left turn with a direct
heading, I instinctively knew he was heading for an airport. He was
taking a direct route to Palau Langkawi, a 13,000-foot airstrip with an
approach over water and no obstacles. The captain did not turn back to
Kuala Lampur because he knew he had 8,000-foot ridges to cross. He knew
the terrain was friendlier toward Langkawi, which also was closer.
Take a look at this airport on Google Earth.
The pilot did all the right things. He was confronted by some major
event onboard that made him make an immediate turn to the closest,
safest airport.
Quote:What I think happened is the flight crew was overcome by smoke and theRead the rest. It's quite compelling. Occam's Razor suggests to me that this is the most likely answer that fits all the known facts. It doesn't require a conspiracy or hijacking. Just something going horribly wrong at the worst time.
plane continued on the heading, probably on George (autopilot), until it
ran out of fuel or the fire destroyed the control surfaces and it
crashed. You will find it along that route–looking elsewhere is
pointless.