Malaysia Airlines Flight 379 Disappearance - Case Study Example

Malaysia Airlines Flight 379 Disappearance Name: Lecturer: Course: Date: Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Investigation and search 3 Hypothesised routes search 3 Phase one of the search 4 Phase two 4 Phase three 5 Phase four 5 Possible causes 6 Crew involvement 6 Hijacking by terrorists 6 Pilot Suicide 7 Possibility of a cyberattack 8 Illicit Cargo 9 Passenger involvement 9 Parallel universe 10 Conclusion 10 Works Cited 10 Introduction Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was an international passenger flight that went mission upon leaving Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur International Airport on its way to China’s Beijing Capital International Airport, on March 8, 2014 at 12.40am. The aircraft vanished from the commercial radar at 1.22am while carrying 227 passengers, 2 infants and 12 members of the crew. This report examines the potential causes of the plane’s disappearance, investigation and search and, the conspiracy theories behind the disappearance (CBS News 1). Investigation and search In March 2014, The Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak issued a statement suggesting that the flight in question had ended at an unidentified location in the Indian Ocean (Cook 1). A multinational search effort set off at the South China Sea and the Gulf of Thailand, where the lost plane’s signal reportedly disappeared from the secondary surveillance radar, before spreading towards the Andaman Sea and Strait of Malacca. Following analysis of the military radar data, investigators conceived that the aircraft had rerouted from its planned course and flew west past the Malay Peninsula, before pursuing a southern or northern track for some seven hours (CBS News 1). Hypothesised routes search The investigators claimed that the military radar had showed that the aircraft redirected to head west, before flying further for 70 minutes. It then disappeared from the Malaysian radar. Later, reports indicated that the plane had been tracked while flying at a lower altitude across Malaysia, towards Malacca Strait, some 310 miles from where it had been tracked by civilian radar. The report was, however, denied after Vietnamese air traffic control reported that it has tracked flight 370 turn back west (Cook 1). Phase one of the search On March 8 and 9, Vietnamese navy reported that it had made contact with the plane over the Gulf of Thailand. Searches on the coast of Vietnam detected oil slicks that, however, tested negative for aviation fuel (Starr 1). On March 9, 2014, debris discovered some 140 kilometres south-west of Phú Quốc Island after they were indicated floating by a Chinese website were searched and ruled out. Focus later shifted from the Gulf of Thailand to the Andaman Sea. The radius of the search was expanded to 100 from 20 nautical miles, covering the Strait of Malacca. On March 12, 2014, investigators started searching through the Andaman Sea, heading northwest of the Strait of Malacca (Starr 1). Phase two The second phase of the search started on March 13 to search additional areas of the Indian Ocean. On March 17, the Australia Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) led the search towards the southern Indian Ocean using aircrafts and ship. On March 19, the search capacity was boosted using three merchant ships and three aircrafts. The search operation increased on March 20th following the discovery of large pieces of debris photographed by satellite, 4 days earlier (Wardell 1). The search was assisted by the United States, South Korea, China, New Zealand and Japan on March 26, about 120 pieces debris were also discovered floating in the southern Indian Ocean by a French satellite, and 300 floating objects by Thai satellite. The debris was, however, confirmed to be unrelated to the aircraft (Kaye 1). Phase three On March 28, the search proceeded to some 1,850 kilometres west of Perth. On March 30, the orange coloured objects discovered by search aircraft turned out to be fishing equipment. The search was redirected to 2,100 kilometres west of Learmonth on April 4. On April 6 and 8, the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) reported that the Ocean Field ping had picked signals some 300 nautical miles. The signals were claimed to be consistent with that of a plane. However, the signals were later picked by sonobuoys set with a hydrophone at some 300 metres depth and were established to have not originated from Flight 370 (Pandey 1). On May 12, Ocean Shield’s captain claimed that the signals detected by pings on April 8, may not have originated from Flight 370, since they had a frequency of 27 kHz, which is below pinger’s frequency of 37.5 kHz (Kaye 1). Search was interrupted on May 13 due to the problem with the transponder, before being continued on May 22. In the new search, bathymetric survey in the area and on May 29, Australian authorities reported that no aircraft debris had been found in the searches (Kaye 1). Phase four On June 10, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) signed a three-year contract with a Dutch deep sea survey company called Fugro to survey the search floor. The search started on June 18. On August 6, Malaysia, Australia and China jointly announced that Fugro had been awarded the contract. The search shifted to 60,000 square miles near the Broken Bridge. Possible causes The question regarding the disappearance of the plane has become the biggest mystery befuddling aviation industry, investigators, and industry experts. There have been claims of sabotage, catastrophic explosions, and pilot suicide. The disappearance of the Aircraft has been shrouded in mystery (Roberts 1). As a result, a number of alternate and conspiracy theories with varying reliability have been suggested to explain the disappearance. Despite these theories, the disappearance still remains unexplained even as it is under investigations. Crew involvement The possibility of electronic hijacking has also been promoted. Technically, electronic hijacking depends on programming and systems installed within the B777 Flight Management System. Proponents of this theory have argued that off-board hijackers who had access to the plane’s Flight Management System, through the Uninterruptible Autopilot, which was patented in 2003, may have hijacked the plane (SkyNews 1). Hijacking by terrorists The possibility of hijacking has been suggested by a number of news outlets, such as ABC News. There have been speculations that the plane was hijacked and taken to Remote Island. Despite this, no terrorist group has officially claimed responsibility for any such incident. At any rate, investigators have identified some 600 likely runways the plane could have landed (Al Arabiya 1). In the same vein, some news outlets have promoted the idea of hijacking by Jihadist terrorists. In April, Russian daily Moskovskij Komsomolets supported the theory, alleging that unidentified terrorists have hijacked the plane and flew it to Afghanistan or northern Pakistan. These assertions remain unconfirmed and have been categorised as conspiracy theories (Mertz 1). Pilot Suicide Theories of crew suicide have also been suggested. There have been suggestions that the pilot may have participated in the disappearance of the plane, or committed suicide. In fact, on June 23rd, the Malaysian police suspected the pilot as the prime suspect while building up the case of human involvement. The investigators opined that someone in the cockpit of the plane had turned on autopilot before the plane flew south across Indian Ocean. This raised further suspicion that the disappearance of the plane could have been mass murder, committed by the pilot (Subani 1). The hijacking by the pilot was endorsed throughout the investigation, as less than 21 days before the flight’s disappearance, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 702 had been hijacked after the co-pilot locked the pilot out of the cabin and rerouted the airplane to seek asylum in Switzerland. Flight 370’s cockpit had anti-hijacker fortified doors that may have prevented passengers from interfering with the hijacking or suicide into the Southern Ocean (Al Arabiya 1). It was established that the pilot has trained in landing on Indian Ocean using short runways or through a flight simulator. The pilot may also have anticipated his death as he had made no plans for any social functions after the flight, unlike the rest of the crew. The missing debris supports the theory. This is since only a conscious pilot would have had a chance to ditch the airframe with it breaking up and as a result allowing it to sink in one piece (Roberts 1). However, the United States and Malaysian investigators searched the home of the pilot. They later reconstructed deleted files from the pilot’s home flight simulator and reported that nothing peculiar had been found. The Malaysian police said that more than 170 interviews had been undertaken with the families and friends of the pilot and his crew of 12 members. They later examined financial records and made conclusion that nothing sinister could be established, except that that the pilot, Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, had not made any social plans after March 8. Possibility of a cyberattack Theories of a cyberattack on Flight 270 have also been suggested. A former scientific advisor to the UK government Sally Leivesley argued that hacker could have altered the altitude, direction and speed of the plane through radio signals of the aircraft’s flight management system. Boeing has however dismissed such possibilities, arguing that the flight critical systems are robustly protected (Al Arabiya 1). Some commentators have supported the possibility of alien abduction. Among the proponents of this theory is filmmaker Alexandra Bruce who claimed that flight 370 may have been captured by aliens, or extraterrestrials. Bruce pointed to a YouTube video that showed a computer simulation of the departure of the plane and an object in the background. However, the object in the simulation has been identified as Korean Airlines Flight 672, rather than the Unidentified Flying Object (UFO). Illicit Cargo Investigations are yet to rule out the likelihood of sabotage as a cause of the disappearance. A statement issued by MAS boss Ahmad Jauhari Yahya on March 17, 2014 clarified that the aircraft only carried between three and four tons of mangosteens and that nothing dangerously or explosive had been carried (Al Arabiya 1). However, on March 20, 2014, he issued another statement claiming that potentially flammable lithium ion batteries had been carried, totalling 221 kilograms. The Malaysian officials promised to investigate the destinations of the cargos to put to rest the likelihood of sabotage (Subani 1). Passenger involvement Suggestions of passenger involvement in the disappearances have been raised. According to an article published by the Cabal Times on March 12, 2014, two male passengers, an Italian and an Australian, had reportedly lost their passports and that no check had been made against the database (Subina 1). Malaysia’s immigration officials were criticised for failing to stop the two passengers from travelling vial the plane. The two men were believed to have been terrorists. One of the passengers, who had also worked as a flight engineer for a Swiss airline was also suspected as a potential hijacker. However, United States officials together with the Malaysian officials did a background check of each passenger named as likely suspects and concluded that they may not have been hijackers (LA Times). Parallel universe Commentators who are fascinated with the theories of alternative universe have subscribed to the suggestion of parallel universe and Bermuda Triangle. They have argued that the plane may have vanished into an outward portal (Al Arabiya 1). Conclusion The question regarding the disappearance of the plane has become the biggest mystery befuddling aviation industry, investigators, and industry experts. There have been claims of sabotage, catastrophic explosions, pilot suicide to sabotage. Accordingly, several alternate and conspiracy theories with varying reliability have been suggested to explain the disappearance. However, the disappearance still remains unexplained even as the disappearance is under investigations. The search is also ongoing. Works Cited Al Arabiya. "Conspiracy abound: Top bizarre theories for missing Malaysian plane."Al Arabiya News, 12 March 2014, CBS News. "Focus shifts to flight crew amid new plane revelations," 15 March 2014. 25 Sept 2014, Cook, Stephen. "Missing Malaysian Airlines Plane: The Truth Still Lies ‘Outside the (Black) Box’ – Part 2/2." Golden Age of Gaia, 25 march 2014. 25 Sept 2014, Kaye, Byron. "Australia and Malaysia vow to solve plane mystery." Cyprus Mail, 23 April 2014. 25 Sept 2014, LATimes. "Missing Malaysia Airlines jet not in search area, officials say." Los Angeles Times, 29 May 2014. 25 Sept 2014, Mertz, Richard. "Did you know that the missing Malaysian aircraft is probably hijacked by..." TYD Know, 16 April 2014. 25 Sept 2014, Pandey, Swati. Fading signals add urgency to search for missing Malaysian jet." Cyprus Mail, 12 April 2014. 25 Sept 2014, Reuters. "Investigators Look For Motive In Malaysia Plane Disappearance," The HuffingtonPost, 16 March 2014. 25 Sept 2014, Roberts, Edward. "Missing MH370: Ex-Malaysian PM hints at CIA conspiracy and claims 'someone is hiding something'" Mirror, 19 May 2014. 25 Sept 2014, SkyNews. “Deliberate Action' Diverted Missing Plane" 15 March 2014. 25 Sept 2014, Starr, Barbara. "CNN Exclusive: Analysis shows two possible Indian Ocean paths for airliner." CNN, 15 March 2015. 25 Sept 2014, Subani, Hamadi. “Was Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Redirected to Diego Garcia?" Cabal Time, 12 March, 2014. 25 Sept 2014, Wardell, Jane. "Search for MH370 to be most expensive in aviation history." Cyprus Mail, 8 April 2014. 25 Sept 2014, Read More