Re-visiting MH 370

It's almost 29 months since we mysteriously lost MH 370 on 08 March 2014. Unlike MH 17, its disappearance remains unexplained but highly speculated, its whereabouts unknown though it's suspected to be somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean.

There have been many theories (not facts) on MH 370's disappearance, with one of the most flamboyant ones from Mahathir. He suspected US complicity in its loss. I too have contributed a couple of probable, thus speculated causes.

But the most notorious or recurring rumour has been the deliberate suicide flight of its captain, Azaharie Ahmad Shah.

Westerners especially Americans and Aussies like to believe a Muslim pilot is prone to such suicide flight, influenced in parts by 9/11 and the viciousness of IS, though they somehow remain very quiet about Lufthansa-owned Germanwings Flight 9525, an Airbus 320-211, which was deliberately crashed by its co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, a German caucasian. He killed 144 passengers, 4 crew members, the pilot and himself in his suicide flight.

There have been several other cases of suicide flights by pilots, including one allegedly blamed on a Sing (Chinese) pilot some years ago, but most like to blame a Muslim pilot.

As mentioned above, I have written quite a few posts on MH 370 and I have to admit I'm still speculating about its crash location at best. However, I place my trust in the investigation of the Australian Transport Safety Board (ATSB).

Recently an Australian retired pilot came out to support previous allegations that Captain Azaharie committed suicide, hardly surprising, but no evidence was offered by him as to why there had been total communication silence from the final flight, when there existed hundreds of mobile phones of passengers and cabin crew on board.

Australian media were naturally quick off the mark after the crash, coming up with salacious stores about his copilot since they had no evidence of any suicidal intent by the pilots - that's their carma, that's their sensational rating-driven style.

Capt Azaharie with Aussie-educated daughter 

In fact, many disconnected pieces of evidence showed the ATSB and its counterparts from other nations are still correct in their ongoing investigation. This has been in contrast to the wild sensational speculations by so-called 'experts' who offered merely speculations. We can only wonder about their motives?

One of the most moronic speculations on Andreas Lubitz's suicide flight had been his practice of descents. Huh? Descent practice?

Ask any pilots on the stupidity of such speculations. Then, those so-called 'experts claimed Lubitz's girlfriend was pregnant, and the list of moronic speculations went on.

Many theories have been offered for Azaharie's so-called suicide, including:

would such a person commit suicide? 

(a) He was a supporter of Anwar Ibrahim, in fact personally related to him but disowned by Wan Azizah at time of the flight disappearance, and was said to be extremely depressed by Anwar's imprisonment. Anwar's incarceration was made known to him just prior to his flight, yet no one explained why he had allegedly practised flying into the southern Indian Ocean for weeks prior to Anwar's incarceration.

Would any Anwaristas commit suicide for the imprisonment of Anwar? Hmm, no answer?

(b) He and his wife had divorced two weeks before his suicide, yet like above, he allegedly practised flying into the southern Indian Ocean for weeks prior to his divorce.

Obviously Boeing obviously has an avid interest in the matter as it had been their aircraft that was MH 370. If ATSB investigations can prove (not speculate) that it had been structural or some part of the aircraft that failed, leading to the mysteriously diversion and loss, Boeing's liability will be tremendous.

OTOH, if it can be proven Captain Azaharie had indeed committed suicide, MAS liability will be equally enormous.

would such a person commit suicide? 

Anyway, a report by the UK's Weekday said:

Missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 plummeted out of the sky at speeds of up to 20,000ft a minute, according to new analysis of the plane's automated signals.

Defence scientists believe the aircraft ran out of fuel and the two engines flamed out within 15 minutes of one another, causing the plane to lose lift.

At this point, its nose would have dropped and it would have fallen in a series of downward swoops, reports The Australian, which was briefed on the analysis.

"As it gathered speed, it would have gained lift and climbed again. As that speed fell off, its nose would have dropped rapidly once more, the aircraft falling into another steep dive," says the newspaper. "That process is likely to have been repeated until it hit the water, probably with one wing down. The impact would have been catastrophic."

The discovery of wreckage from the flight over the past year suggests that it broke up on impact.

Greg Hood (I know of him - he's a good bloke), the chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which is leading the search, said the new data suggests there was no pilot at the controls at the end of the flight. This is contrary to another theory that a pilot might have crashed the plane outside the current search area.

The analysis, which includes extensive testing by Boeing, indicates that the plane descended at a rate of between 12,000ft a minute and 20,000ft a minute, much faster than a normal landing of around 2,000ft a minute.

Maybe we will never ever know what happen except to continue speculating. Maybe we will just cling on to Mahathir's theory about USA complicity. Maybe Raja Bomoh can tell us via his coconut-bullshit.

It's somewhere - see where the coconuts drift to 

But al Fatihah, Azaharie Ahmad Shah.

RIP to all those on board.