On the night of March 8, 2014, Malaysian flight 370 took off headed to Beijing. The Flight had 12 crew members and 227 passengers (Gregersen 1). The Flight took off at 12:41 AM and reached an altitude of 35,000 feet at 1:01 AM (Langewiesche 2). The Flight sent its last voice communication from its crew at 1:19 AM, and only minutes later, the plane's transponder was switched off (Gregersen 1). Radars and signals still detected the aircraft until 8:11 AM, when the aircraft was last seen, and all contact was lost forever. (Gregersen 1). After the Flight went missing, a search for the aircraft was started and were unsuccessful until, a year later, July 29, 2015, when a right-wing flaperon was found on a small island (Gregersen 1). Throughout the following year, other pieces of debris were found on the shores of a few countries in and around Africa (Gregersen 1). The debris found was still not enough to find out what happened to Flight 370, and in January 2017, they called off the search (Gregersen 1). Since the disappearance of Flight 370, several conspiracy theories have surfaced:
1. The plane was hijacked.
2. A fire in the cockpit.
3. Pilot Zarahi Shah committed mass murder-suicide.
Let's take a look into the disappearance of Malaysian flight 370 and the conspiracy surrounding its disappearance.
Captain Zaharie Amad Shah was known as a veteran pilot who joined Malaysian airlines in 1981 (Birchall 1). Shah was 53 years old and was a pilot with Malaysian airlines for 33 years. He had over 18,000 hours of flight time (1). Shah had been a captain for the B777 for almost half the time he had been with Malaysian Airlines (1). He was considered a respected pilot and had no issues on his record (1). From the outside, he seemed like quite a family man but when you look deeper you can tell how that was just a lie.
After the flight disappeared, many rumors about his marriage came out. One rumor was that his wife had moved out (Kishore 2). Zaharie was a dishonest man when it came to relationships. When the plane crashed, and rumors came out, his sister said, "Until and unless we have evidence, tangible evidence, I maintain his innocence. Simply put, the suicide story is but another story. My brother loved life, he loved his lifestyle, period." (2). But when the investigation started, they found 97 Facebook messages that led psychologists to believe he was "self-destructive" (Birchall 1). It was found that he was unfaithful to his marriage by sending sexual messages to Malaysian twin sisters (1). He had been commenting on one of their posts and even repeatedly asking the girls when they were coming to his hometown, even though he was being ignored by them (1). All of this points to Zaharie be a dishonest man.
Zaharie was also known for being quite disruptive on social media. Shah used his Facebook to call the Malaysian prime minister a "moron" (1). He was known for slamming the Malaysian government even though they owned the airline he flew for (1). An aviation editor for the West Australian newspaper, Geoffrey Thomas, said he should have been fired for his political rants alone (1). Geoffrey told Australia's Daily Telegraph, "It should have raised serious alarm bells with the airline that you have someone flying who has such strong anti-government views. If a Qantas pilot did something like that, he would be spoken to and grounded." (1). This shows how opinionated Zaharie was agist the government that even owned the airline he flew for.
Looking at it, Zaharie Ahmad Shah was not necessarily the family man he seemed to be. He allegedly was an unfaithful husband, which led to his wife moving out. He also had strong political views about the government he flew for. All this leads to the appearance that Shah lives a double life, which leads to more suspicion of Flight 370.
After the missing Malaysian Flight 370, several theories have surfaced. The theories are hijacking, a fire in the cockpit, and mass murder suicide. Since there is not much evidence to what really happened, many things point to only one theory.
The first theory to the missing Malaysian flight 370 is hijacking; "This theory made by Norman Davis suggests that the MH370, which was equipped with an autopilot onboard computer could have been hacked and programmed to fly to a secret location.” Norman Davis told The Sunday Times that the plane might have carried sensitive material or personnel to Beijing (Staff 1). Norman Davis said, "There are reports that the cargo detailed in the manifest that didn't add up. I don't know what it might have been carrying, but it may have been carrying something somebody didn't want to get to China" (1). "On the other hand, when the investigation for the flight's disappearance took place, this seemed to be impossible due to an aggressive U-turn that many people and science journalist Jeff Wise, thought that the plane would have had to be flown manually" (Llewelyn 2).
The second conspiracy suggested that there was a fire in the cockpit (Vance 1) This theory states that due to the lithium-ion batteries on board, the flight caught on fire.(1) Lithium-ion batteries burn very hot and are not quickly extinguished (1). This fire would be a reason why the plane's transponder signal was lost (1). “They would be aware that no critical wiring needed to support services in the cockpit (including the transponder) are located in the vicinity of the cargo compartments” (1). In reality, this theory has no hard evidence showing this ever happened. The evidence proves that this is highly unlikely due to the pilot being alive and functional, and he was controlling a fully functional airplane to the ocean's surface.
The third and most talked-about theory is that the pilot committed mass murder-suicide due to mental health and a family situation. A Malaysian-led investigation states that the plane's course was changed manually (Lavalette 1). This leads everyone to believe the reason for the plane crashing came from on board (1). The pilot Zarah Shah had supposedly been living a double life, and due to that, he separated from his wife (1). “Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said the "top levels" of the Malaysian government long suspected that the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 almost six years ago was a mass murder-suicide by the pilot” (1).
This caused many to believe it would be a mass murder-suicide due to the rumors and information about the pilot's private life coming out after the investigation (1).
The most likely scenario is the mass murder-suicide. Although many factors are missing to call this theory true, it makes the most sense based on the piolet’s mental state and marital status. According to Tony Abbott, former Australian Prime Minister, this scenario is also believed by the top levels of the Malaysian government.
On March 8, 2014, everything went downhill for Malaysian Flight 370. Flight 370 is still missing and will remain a mystery to this day. Due to the disappearance, three theories have surfaced:
1. The plane was hijacked
2. A fire in the cockpit
3. Pilot Zarahi Shah committed mass murder-suicide
Many of these theories lead to dead ends, but out of all these theories, Pilot Zarahi Shah committing mass murder-suicide is most likely the cause of the plane’s disappearance. Despite that, there is still not enough evidence to close the case. To this day, we still don’t know what exactly happened to Flight 370, and we will probably never know.
Works Cited
P Birchall, Guy. "Who Was Zaharie Ahmad Shah? MH370 Pilot Who Was in Command of the Malaysian Airlines Jet When It Vanished." The Sun, 18 June 2019, https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/7483593/zaharie-ahmad-shah-mh370-pilot-malaysian-airlines/.
T Gregersen, Erik. "Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Disappearance | Description & Facts." Encyclopedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/event/Malaysia-Airlines-flight-370-disappearance. Accessed 15 Sept. 2021.
P Kishore, Divya. "Depressed" MH370 Pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah Changed Plane's Route, Speed and Avoided Radar. https://meaww.com/zaharie-ahmad-shah-mh-370-pilot-changed-plane-route-speed-avoided-radar-before-diving-indian-ocean. Accessed 22 Sept. 2021.
P Langewiesche, William. "What Really Happened to Malaysia's Missing Airplane." The Atlantic, June 17, 2019, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/07/mh370-malaysia-airlines/590653/.
P Llewelyn, Abbie. "MH370: Unusual Turn That 'Proved' Plane Hijack Theory Exposed." Express.co.uk, Express.co.uk, 30 Apr. 2020, www.express.co.uk/news/weird/1276135/mh370-news-malaysia-airlines-flight-370-missing-plane-hijack-u-turn-spt.
P Lavalette, Tristan. “Former Australian Prime Minister Says Malaysian Officials Long Suspected the MH370 Crash Was a Mass Murder-Suicide Carried out by One of the Pilots.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 19 Feb. 2020,
https://www.businessinsider.com/malaysians-believe-mh370-mass-murder-suicide-former-australian-pm-says-2020-2.
P Staff, The Week. "What Happened to the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370." The Week UK, The Week, 16 June 2020, www.theweek.co.uk/mh370.
T Vance, Larry. MH370 Theory: An Onboard Fire - Hvsaviation.com. hvsaviation.com/MH370-theory-onboard-fire.
