This paper will allow the reader to analyze different facts and conspiracies about the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370. The reason for the disappearance is still unknown to the world. Many of the conspiracy theories are mind-boggling such as the Malaysian Government being behind a large scale cover up, to a pilot suicide in which he took all 239 passengers and staff with him.
The disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 is a mystery that still astounds academics to this day. The world was baffled on March 8th, 2014 when Flight 370 deviated from its planned course. The search for the plane and the 239 passengers and crew lasted from early 2014 to late 2016 (Sejin Park-Lindsey Bier-Michael Palenchar-2016). This search is now the most expensive multinational search in aviation history (Weiai Xu-Congcong Zhang-2018). It was discontinued when searchers had found only twenty seven pieces of the plane, yet only ten pieces could be confirmed to the plane and in such a long timespan. The investigations had ended until a private contractor launched their own investigation in 2018. However, they decided to suspended their investigation on account of finding absolutely nothing in the six months that they had searched. Many questions arose from the disappearance. Questions such as: how did the plane disappear? Were the pilots involved? How did the media report this crisis? Did Malaysia cover up the disappearance? And finally, did the Malaysian military have anything to do with the disappearance? An effect of the disappearance of Flight 370 has influenced the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to set new regulations; such as, when a plane is in distress the crew must report their position to the ground control. This will help searchers in their attempts to find missing planes in the future in case anything like this happens again.
Pilot Suicide?
The pilot’s name was Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah and he was flying with his co-pilot, Fariq Abdul Hamid. They were investigated when the authorities learned that the communications systems were deliberately disabled and the aircraft had knowingly been steered off course while going down instead of staying on course. Captain Zaharie became an employee for the Malaysia Airlines in 1981 and had logged over 18,000 hours of flying experience from 1981 to 2014. The 53 year old father of three had been very closely investigated after reports suggested that his wife and children had moved out of their home only a day before the flight disappeared (BBC News). The pilots relationship troubles could have served as a major stressor which could have led to Captain Zaharie intentionally crashing the plane as a suicide attempt. Another hint that he could have intentionally crashed the plane was the unexpected turn to the left that could have brought the plane over Zaharie’s hometown. Investigators think that that turn may have been his final goodbye to his hometown (BBC News). The co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid was a less likely suspect, with only 2,700 logged flight hours. Flight 370 was his first flight flying as a fully-approved pilot for the MH370. Along with very few logged flight hours the twenty-seven year old had been accused of breaching safety rules by inviting two South African women into the cockpit during a journey in 2011. By having breached safety protocol that one time authorities also believe that he could have invited someone into the cockpit that could have hijacked the plane. Finally, as his friends and family were interviewed by authorities an imam(person who leads prayers in a mosque) who had known the co-pilot very well had told the authorities that he was a “good boy, a good muslim, humble and quiet” as well as being very serious about his career.
Did Malaysia Cover Up The Disappearance?
After the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 the families of the now presumably deceased passengers felt as if they were not kept in the loop by the Malaysian government in their search efforts. Their thoughts were confirmed as the families of the deceased were alerted only 30 minutes before the public statement was issued. The statement had stated “we have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH370 has been lost and nobody has survived”(The Guardian 2014). That may not seem not seem to be a big deal, but many families were not able to read the text that they had received because it was written in english and over two-thirds of the families were of chinese origin who were unable to read english.