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Sunday, March 30, 2014

Malaysia Airlines flight MH 370

The Greatest Mystery

Firstly, I must say that I am from Bermuda where we live with the infamous Bermuda Triangle, which is part myth and part non-mystery, in that small boats often go mising and unseaworthy cargo ships have sunk in horrendous seas.  However, no regularly scheduled airline has ever been lost, nor have any cruise ships gone missing. Had flight MH370  gone missing anywhere near Bermuda it woud have taken on an unnecessary element of mystery. The only thing we have to be thankul for is that it could not have happened farther away.

As it is, it is tragic enough by the sheer fact that it seems to have just dropped off the face of the earth. That has been made worse by an ever increasing volume of theories as to just what happened. Science has given us a fair idea of where the plane went, so let's review that information. It left the departing airport and headed in the direction of Bejing, but as it headed offshore it left its flight path by making a left turn inland. Had it developed some kind of  on-board technical problem it would turn off the flight path and out of that corridor to head inland, but the cockpit would have advised the tower as to what it was doing. Instead, it appears that a perfectly normal conversation was held just before the turn.

As the turn took place the cockpit did a strange thing: they turned off the transponder and the CARS system which appears as a deliberate act to eliminate their identity. Had control of the cockpit been taken over by some third party that would appear to be an action that indicated a hijacking in progress. From that point flight MH370 was identified by the continuing radar blip without identifying symbols. The flight was followed across the land mass until it came to the junction of the north-south corridor at which time it dropped below radar.

It was a missed opportunity not to have scrambled airforce jets to follow the plane while it was enroute across the land mass, because once it dropped below radar it effectively fell off the face of the earth in so far as technology is concerned, with the exception that Boeing in Washington could tell that the engines were still working for another six hours or so.

Why were the two substantive and deliberate actions taken to render the plane invisible? Since it did not report mechanical problems, nor did it land for repairs we can totally rule that out. It seems that the plane and passengers were stolen with presumably the intent of ransom.

Science has told us that the flight turned south into the corridor, so if it did do that there would have been the likehood of landing in the northwest quadrant of Australia where there is a lot of territory into which it might possibly disappear, and where it would remain, if this was some very carefully crafted and supported plot, or it simply continued to fly over the Indian Ocean until it ran out of fuel, at which time it simply would have fallen into the sea.

Had it landed on Australian soil there would probably have been a purpose to that, but to simply fly it until it ran out of fuel makes no kind of sense at all.

Could a plane of that size really land in Australia without the Australians knowing? A good question for the experts, but I imagine that a search of the northwest must be taking place, although I haven't heard that is so.

The mystery continues as I write. The families reflect the growing stress on all people worldwide who might become air travellers. The Big Question is why is it taking so long to find some kind of definitive answer?  I am sure that those who are directly involved in the search are feeling the pressure more than anyone else to find something.

This is a mystery that will take as long as it takes to produce answers, if answers are ever produced. With 27 countries involved in the search it is very clear that no expense is being spared. We, meaning the whole world have to know what happened, even if we never get to know the why.

PATIENCE!

Copyright (c) 2014  Eugene Carmichael