"Good night Malaysian three-seven-zero." It was a routine sign-off, an all-is-well.
On March 8, 2014, at 1:19 a.m., someone spoke those last words from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 to air traffic controllers before the Boeing 777 vanished.
A year later, searchers have no new clues as to where it went with 239 people on board.
Radar and satellite reports have provided hints, but searchers still have nothing to hold in their hands. No wreckage seen floating at sea or beached on shore. No fuselage resting on the sea floor.
Experts have said the data indicate the flight path from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing unexpectedly veered, putting the commercial jet over the southern Indian Ocean.
But the water's vast and intricate depths have revealed no secrets. And as clarity has eluded grasp, analysts have made many speculations about what happened.
Here are some expert theories about what happened to MH370. Investigators have since cast doubt on some of their details.
The pilot suicide theory
Who radioed those last words to air traffic control? Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah? First officer Fariq Abdul Hamid?
There was much speculation over that, but the Malaysian inspectors in April said it was Zaharie.
The pilots were supposed to check in with new air traffic controllers in Vietnam, but never did. One theory is that one pilot may have incapacitated the other, then guided the plane to its end, taking the passengers down with him in a dramatic suicide.
The cockpit guest theory
Mark Weiss, a retired American Airlines captain, has flown a Boeing 777, think there could have been another person -- a crew member or someone else -- in the cockpit who "was bent on perhaps committing suicide or doing some destruction on the aircraft."
The commandeering and hijacking theory
The difference between hijacking and commandeering is nuanced. The former term is often used when the hijacker issues a demand such as being taken to a safe-haven country or receiving ransom to release passengers.
When people commandeer a plane, they might keep the motives secret, said political analyst Peter Bergen.
The Kazakhstan theory
MH370 went to Kazakhstan. Outlandish conjecture or genius insight?
The theory that Russian actors on board MH370 found a way to get the plane through the border territory of China, Pakistan and India to a Kazakh landing strip leased to Russia comes from science journalist and private pilot Jeff Wise.
The mechanical failure theory
In a less sinister but equally lethal explanation, some experts theorized the plane mysteriously crashed somewhere because of mechanical malfunction.
Perhaps the electronics died, or a fire broke out, preventing the pilots from communicating. Maybe they turned to look for a landing strip but couldn't steer the plane properly.
08/03/15 Ben Brumfield, Michael Martinez and Steve Almasy/CNN
On March 8, 2014, at 1:19 a.m., someone spoke those last words from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 to air traffic controllers before the Boeing 777 vanished.
A year later, searchers have no new clues as to where it went with 239 people on board.
Radar and satellite reports have provided hints, but searchers still have nothing to hold in their hands. No wreckage seen floating at sea or beached on shore. No fuselage resting on the sea floor.
Experts have said the data indicate the flight path from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing unexpectedly veered, putting the commercial jet over the southern Indian Ocean.
But the water's vast and intricate depths have revealed no secrets. And as clarity has eluded grasp, analysts have made many speculations about what happened.
Here are some expert theories about what happened to MH370. Investigators have since cast doubt on some of their details.
The pilot suicide theory
Who radioed those last words to air traffic control? Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah? First officer Fariq Abdul Hamid?
There was much speculation over that, but the Malaysian inspectors in April said it was Zaharie.
The pilots were supposed to check in with new air traffic controllers in Vietnam, but never did. One theory is that one pilot may have incapacitated the other, then guided the plane to its end, taking the passengers down with him in a dramatic suicide.
The cockpit guest theory
Mark Weiss, a retired American Airlines captain, has flown a Boeing 777, think there could have been another person -- a crew member or someone else -- in the cockpit who "was bent on perhaps committing suicide or doing some destruction on the aircraft."
The commandeering and hijacking theory
The difference between hijacking and commandeering is nuanced. The former term is often used when the hijacker issues a demand such as being taken to a safe-haven country or receiving ransom to release passengers.
When people commandeer a plane, they might keep the motives secret, said political analyst Peter Bergen.
The Kazakhstan theory
MH370 went to Kazakhstan. Outlandish conjecture or genius insight?
The theory that Russian actors on board MH370 found a way to get the plane through the border territory of China, Pakistan and India to a Kazakh landing strip leased to Russia comes from science journalist and private pilot Jeff Wise.
The mechanical failure theory
In a less sinister but equally lethal explanation, some experts theorized the plane mysteriously crashed somewhere because of mechanical malfunction.
Perhaps the electronics died, or a fire broke out, preventing the pilots from communicating. Maybe they turned to look for a landing strip but couldn't steer the plane properly.
08/03/15 Ben Brumfield, Michael Martinez and Steve Almasy/CNN
No comments:
Post a Comment