The greatest mystery in modern aviation has been that of MH370, where in March of 2014 a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200 disappeared shortly after takeoff from Kuala Lumpur, while enroute to Beijing. With modern technology I find it amazing that a 777 could go missing without a trace, despite an international investigation.
There have been lots of theories as to what happened, ranging from believable and well researched theories, all the way to conspiracy theories. Some believe there was a catastrophic fire on the plane. Some believe the plane lost cabin pressure and just kept flying until it ran out of fuel. Some believe it was abducted by aliens. Some believe it was hijacked by the Russians.
But as the story of the missing plane began to unfold, more and more questions arose regarding the captain, to the point that the prevailing MH370 theory is that the captain intentionally crashed the plane.
Well, it looks like that theory is now more or less officially confirmed, as authorities have revealed that the captain had flown a similar route deep into the South Indian Ocean less than a month before the plane went missing.
Per New York Magazine:
New York has obtained a confidential document from the Malaysian police investigation into the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 that shows that the plane’s captain, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, conducted a simulated flight deep into the remote southern Indian Ocean less than a month before the plane vanished under uncannily similar circumstances. The revelation, which Malaysia withheld from a lengthy public report on the investigation, is the strongest evidence yet that Zaharie made off with the plane in a premeditated act of mass murder-suicide.
The document presents the findings of the Malaysian police’s investigation into Zaharie. It reveals that after the plane disappeared in March of 2014, Malaysia turned over to the FBI hard drives that Zaharie used to record sessions on an elaborate home-built flight simulator. The FBI was able to recover six deleted data points that had been stored by the Microsoft Flight Simulator X program in the weeks before MH370 disappeared, according to the document. Each point records the airplane’s altitude, speed, direction of flight, and other key parameters at a given moment. The document reads, in part:
“Based on the Forensics Analysis conducted on the 5 HDDs obtained from the Flight Simulator from MH370 Pilot’s house, we found a flight path, that lead to the Southern Indian Ocean, among the numerous other flight paths charted on the Flight Simulator, that could be of interest, as contained in Table 2.”
Here’s a map of the route the plane is believed to have actually flown, compared to what the captain had flown on his home simulator:
I do wonder how long Malaysian authorities have been withholding this information. They had access to his flight simulator shortly after the crash, so I imagine they’ve known this for a while. I haven’t exactly had full faith in the investigation all along, given the number of parties involved.
I’m not sure I would call what the captain did a “suicide route,” but rather it seems more like a sick, twisted game he was playing. If he wanted to commit suicide he could have just flown the plane into the ground, but it sure seems like this was a game for him, perhaps knowing he’d create one of the greatest aviation mysteries ever. In that regard he succeeded, unfortunately at the expense of a lot of innocent peoples’ lives.
As I understand things, the flight was carrying a large load of ions batteries. These batteries have been known to cause fires and cause damage to planes before, and even bring them down.
Some genius decided it would be a good idea to carry a large load on a passenger jet!
IN MY OPINION THERE HAS BEEN A VERY LARGE COVER UP CONCERNING THIS MATTER, WITH THE ABOVE FACT HARDLY EVER BEING MENTIONED....
As I understand things, the flight was carrying a large load of ions batteries. These batteries have been known to cause fires and cause damage to planes before, and even bring them down.
Some genius decided it would be a good idea to carry a large load on a passenger jet!
IN MY OPINION THERE HAS BEEN A VERY LARGE COVER UP CONCERNING THIS MATTER, WITH THE ABOVE FACT HARDLY EVER BEING MENTIONED. SOMEBODY IS TRYING TO WORM THEIR WAY OUT OF RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ABOVE IDIOTIC ACTION.
That's just as bad saying black on black shooting unheard of or Gang bangers are bad their just a group of like minded kids. .
U pig
A muslim pilot is thought to have carried out a murder suicide?
Are you Hitlers son Ken
This theory of Pilot suicude based on his simulated fights at home was floating around right from the days immediately after the disappearance of MH370 though was just a speculation.
Now that the search operation is getting called off as its leading to no where and also costing millions of $ just to bring a closure to the case the suicide story is being given an endorsement as the most likely cause. So that...
This theory of Pilot suicude based on his simulated fights at home was floating around right from the days immediately after the disappearance of MH370 though was just a speculation.
Now that the search operation is getting called off as its leading to no where and also costing millions of $ just to bring a closure to the case the suicide story is being given an endorsement as the most likely cause. So that the victims families could have a sense of relief by knowing that they will have to accept this is a closed chapter now.
If the search operation was called off without giving out substantial evidence of the cause of the disappearance of MH370 there would have been a severe back lash from the victims families.
The fact of the matter is the disappearance of MH370 will remain one of the greatest mysteries of modern avaition as no one exactly knows what happened.
Just basing on simulated flights of the pilot to conclude it was a suicide mission is plain stupid and showing insensitively to the family of the pilot.
Hey maybe Jehovah appeared to him and told him the promised land was due South. Unfortunately noone appeared to part the Indian ocean for him. Jews and Christians making snide comments about Muslim fanatics is just rich. The worst aspects of Islam are the ones copied from Judaism and Christianity.
Money how about life Ins . ? Two MEN in cabin at all times !!!!!!!!!
Lucky
Why is there so many nuts running around U should block people like that. I had hoped it was the planes fault BUT I would guess the pilot now.
Good blog U save me $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
CHEERs
Ken is busy at ComiCon.
Life appears skewed from the perspective of your Mom's basement!
This is not the first this pilot theory came into light. From get go whenever Malaysia had its back to the wall pilot theory surfaces.
Up until now, other countries spent most money on MH370 search, now search is suspended by others, responsibility is on Malaysia, hence ...
Malaysia made a mockery of this tragedy. What a shame. It may be the pilot but I wouldn't believe unless some other country provides facts.
Well, I have crashed a number of airliners intentionally on my laptop... does that make me suspect #1?
Just saying that 1) this about the flight simulator has been known for months 2) it is common for airline pilots to fly their aircfaft at home 3) while this is plausible, there is nothing that makes this much more likely than any other theory such as pressurization.
@Ken Y
LOL I love politically incorrect comments like that. Please keep em coming. XOXO
@Boco - I would guess that Ken Y.'s father dropped him as a child, in addition to everything you mentioned.
The Question I would like to know is if the Captain Shah actually played this sick-twisted game of his or intentional suicide, why did he actually do it? In the name of Islam or was he trying to run away from something and therefore he dug his own grave by burying the secrets by sending the plane on a crash course in the bottom of the Indian Ocean?
To understand this, you have comprehend...
The Question I would like to know is if the Captain Shah actually played this sick-twisted game of his or intentional suicide, why did he actually do it? In the name of Islam or was he trying to run away from something and therefore he dug his own grave by burying the secrets by sending the plane on a crash course in the bottom of the Indian Ocean?
To understand this, you have comprehend the basic human psychology, depression and the mindset of a suicidal madman like Egypt Air to begin with.
The Malaysians have engaged in a coverup from day one of the investigation. Everything about this from the tragic event itself to now, the years of misdirects, lies, and incompetence all point to one thing - an airline backed by a government that places their own interests ahead of the victims and survivors of this tragedy. Shame on them.
I never believed for a minute the theories proposed by Richard Quest and others passing this...
The Malaysians have engaged in a coverup from day one of the investigation. Everything about this from the tragic event itself to now, the years of misdirects, lies, and incompetence all point to one thing - an airline backed by a government that places their own interests ahead of the victims and survivors of this tragedy. Shame on them.
I never believed for a minute the theories proposed by Richard Quest and others passing this off as a mechanical malfunction. The fact that the evidence of the simulated flight path has been surpressed is telling. Probably more evidence exists.
As for you Ken Y, one word, KARMA
I would not be surprised if Malaysian authorities were the ones who deleted the flight path data. Their handling of the entire situation has been shady.
I think this does make sense, but there are still many questions unanswered.
As far as I know this was the first flight of the copoliot without supervision, so the pilot could have easily influenciated him to leave the cabin at some point, or even skip some procedures. But as I mentioned before what baffles me the most is how they are not able to find a single piece of evidence, even when you...
I think this does make sense, but there are still many questions unanswered.
As far as I know this was the first flight of the copoliot without supervision, so the pilot could have easily influenciated him to leave the cabin at some point, or even skip some procedures. But as I mentioned before what baffles me the most is how they are not able to find a single piece of evidence, even when you take into consideration that search efforts have covered most of such a vast area. Very interesting article! Keep up the great work! (New reader here, just a couple of months)
Well the route does not provide any proof that his practice was also implemented big question is until the plan is found nothing can be taken as proof.
The Captain tried to delete it on his simulator but the data was recovered. He had a huge grudge against the Malaysian government - MH is state owned.
The co-pilot was not involved and was locked out by the Captain.
The Captain de-pressurized the cabin.
The Captain took the plane to a very high elevation to make sure everyone was dead.
The Captain turned off the transponder.
The Captain either flew the new route...
The Captain tried to delete it on his simulator but the data was recovered. He had a huge grudge against the Malaysian government - MH is state owned.
The co-pilot was not involved and was locked out by the Captain.
The Captain de-pressurized the cabin.
The Captain took the plane to a very high elevation to make sure everyone was dead.
The Captain turned off the transponder.
The Captain either flew the new route or programmed it into the auto-pilot
The new route went right over Penang (Captain's home town) and made several unusual turns in the area.
The last known position from ground based radar suggested a north westerly route, then the Captain turned south (always far enough away from land so as not to be tracked).
It was the Captain's intention to crash the plane where no one would find it - he appears to have succeeded.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3c/MH370_initial_search_Southeast_Asia.svg
@john you speak as if you knew the captain's innermost thoughts. How can you or anyone be so sure that when he did fly the route in the simulator that it wasn't a test run for the real deal? If you think Lucky is forcing his opinions on you then you're doing the exact same thing by trying to tell us that the simulation was not him practicing. You say that the simulation is nothing...
@john you speak as if you knew the captain's innermost thoughts. How can you or anyone be so sure that when he did fly the route in the simulator that it wasn't a test run for the real deal? If you think Lucky is forcing his opinions on you then you're doing the exact same thing by trying to tell us that the simulation was not him practicing. You say that the simulation is nothing to consider. The captain does a near-identical simulation flight shortly before MH370 goes missing but he definitely was not practicing? Come on...
"... that the captain had flown a similar route deep into the South Indian Ocean less than a month before the plane went missing."
I think this is misleading, and this would be more correct:
"He flew a simulated route deep into the South Indian Ocean..."
Maybe it's just semantics, but I was aghast when I read this - I thought it meant that he had an actual trial run on a real plane :)
This has been out there for while. CNN science reporter Miles OBrien reported this a year ago - he heard it from two FBI sources. The Malaysian government is simply in a state of denial.
The co pilot was in his 20's, the pilot was in his 50's. Did the pilot do what the German Wings guy did and wait until the co pilot left the cockpit? Did MH have a policy of allowing one person alone in the cockpit? I know the cockpit is reinforced, but the plane went for another 5 hours after course change. I am wondering how hundreds of passengers and a locked out co-pilot could...
The co pilot was in his 20's, the pilot was in his 50's. Did the pilot do what the German Wings guy did and wait until the co pilot left the cockpit? Did MH have a policy of allowing one person alone in the cockpit? I know the cockpit is reinforced, but the plane went for another 5 hours after course change. I am wondering how hundreds of passengers and a locked out co-pilot could not get into a cockpit over 5 hours. That leads me to wonder if the co pilot was somehow incapacitated, and how a 50s year old guy could take out a 27 year old guy. So many questions.....
The problem is that this hypothesis raises more questions than answers. What happened to the CO pilot? He just watched the pilot to change to route and let him fly forever?
Forget Ken Y , this story is deeply disturbing ( if not surprising given the extent of the duplicity of those running the Malaysian govt). I hope it gives greater clout to the relatives of the victims in their pursuit of justice. Quite wicked to have kept this secret.
@john: where did Ben even compare the investigating authorities with that of the US?
@Ken Y: what has Ben ever done to you?
@john John, mate, you sound a bit insane.
And like, don't get me wrong, I'm all for not profiling other countries, but it's kind of empirical fact that Malaysian state authorities are more corrupt than U.S. ones. Not saying there isn't corruption in the U.S., but it's at a whole different level in Malaysia. Anyone who has spent time in Malaysia, and most Malaysians, will tell you this.
NY Magazine: "MH370 pilot flew a suicide route on home simulator"
Ben: "I'm not sure I would call what the captain did a “suicide route,” but rather it seems more like a sick, twisted game he was playing"
So to Ben, "MH370 pilot was playing a sick and twisted game on home simulator".
It seems more like Ben is the sick and twisted one!
Because those who are not sick and not twisted, will find...
NY Magazine: "MH370 pilot flew a suicide route on home simulator"
Ben: "I'm not sure I would call what the captain did a “suicide route,” but rather it seems more like a sick, twisted game he was playing"
So to Ben, "MH370 pilot was playing a sick and twisted game on home simulator".
It seems more like Ben is the sick and twisted one!
Because those who are not sick and not twisted, will find it a healthy and normal game - i.e. it is perfectly understandable for a pilot to try out exotic destinations (oceans, poles etc) - places which he doesn't get to fly in real-life - on his home flight simulator game.
Or are you expecting him to fly on his home simulator the exact same flight that he flies in real-life every day? If he does that, then he is really sick and twisted! If that's your expectation, you are really sick and twisted.
Bottomline:
I am not saying he did not play the sick and twisted real-life "game" of flying MH370 into the Indian Ocean. Just that he did NOT play a sick and twisted game on his home simulator. He played a healthy and normal game on his home simulator. That you think he played a sick and twisted game on his home simulator shows that you are sick and twisted.
And I second Boco - I admire your resolve, Lucky, in allowing Ken Y. and creatures like him their free speech, and your corresponding ability to brush them off. Don't let them get to you (though it seems like you have that covered
I somewhat pity people like Ken Y., who must live in a sad, miserable world if they feel so compelled to spend so much time trolling.
"I do wonder how long Malaysian authorities have been withholding this information. They had access to his flight simulator shortly after the crash, so I imagine they’ve known this for a while. I haven’t exactly had full faith in the investigation all along, given the number of parties involved."
meaning you think the Malaysian authority is deliberately covering up and / or is incompetent, compared to your "superior" US police or FBI? Alright then, I...
"I do wonder how long Malaysian authorities have been withholding this information. They had access to his flight simulator shortly after the crash, so I imagine they’ve known this for a while. I haven’t exactly had full faith in the investigation all along, given the number of parties involved."
meaning you think the Malaysian authority is deliberately covering up and / or is incompetent, compared to your "superior" US police or FBI? Alright then, I challenge you: find me a US police department or investigation organization that does not withhold vital information in order to effectively investigate a crime.
Name me such a police department / organization!
Are you able to?
If not, it's time for you (and many others throughout these few years) to stop (that is, if you have some decency) hurl such unfair accusations of outright unprofessionalism against hard-working and upright investigating authorities from countries that you (wrongly) thought are more "primitive" than your great US of A.
This is police investigation 101: you have to withhold some vital information that only the murderer / criminal would know, so that you can use it to test whether the person caught has this "insider" knowledge, thereby "confirming" his guilt etc. All police / investigative organization, all over the world, do that. The Malaysian Authority has done the right thing in doing that. And now that they are almost ready to give up being able to find the plane, they decide to give some "closure" by leaking the info out to the media. That's professionalism.
Is your blog a gossip tabloid?
@ken y... What a awful thing to say
Ken, was your father a jerk to you when you were growing up? I bet anything either he was or he was absent or an alcoholic. No worries, get some good psychotherapy and you can work it out.
Ben, way to keep an open forum and even give the haters their space to "shine."
@ Ken Y. - You should be ashamed of yourself. Go crawl back under your rock...
Wow, Ken Y. you are piece of #$&!
I wonder how we was able to carry this out? What about the rest of the crew? I wonder when/if the passengers started to realize something was up. The flight was at night but into the next morning. I wonder if anyone realized they were flying south? A lot of questions we will never know the answer to.
Of course this still doesn't answer the question I am sure a lot of us have which is why? Doubt we will ever know.
I don't think that this meets the burden of proof required to answer this question definitively.
but here's the thing - if something went wrong with the plane - such a deviation which is not a massive change from the original flight path technically speaking, is completely plausible, there were also several other routes on his flight simulator - in fact more than 80 variances of this flight - so it is still inconclusive.
I think it'd be wise not to point fingers without definite proof - this is quite a serious accusation - the murder of so many people. One question that should also be asked is how much of the 'evidence' is doctored? Can we really believe in these leaks? A lot is probably fabricated for sensation, or worse, as a conspiracy or cover up.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36870116
Let's at least be fair to his family, which, still alive,...
I think it'd be wise not to point fingers without definite proof - this is quite a serious accusation - the murder of so many people. One question that should also be asked is how much of the 'evidence' is doctored? Can we really believe in these leaks? A lot is probably fabricated for sensation, or worse, as a conspiracy or cover up.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36870116
Let's at least be fair to his family, which, still alive, have to endure even more uncertainty and perhaps misplaced guilt and is most certainly unfairly blamed for what their relative has or has not done despite concrete proof.
Ken Y. What a horrible, despicable thing to say. I am sure your Mother and Father are really proud of the person you have grown up to be ... Not.
In addition to innocent lives, he also partially caused the demise of MH (and many layoffs), wasted people's time, etc.
It was definitely a sick game. Ugh.
Why weren't you on that flight?
@ Ken Y. -- Congrats, that comment is a new low for you (which I didn't think was possible).