Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, pilot of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, made his final radio transmission two hours after take-off, signing off with the words "Goodnight Malaysia three seven zero" as the aircraft prepared to cross from Malaysian into Vietnamese airspace. Those words were the last ever heard from the cockpit before the Boeing 777 disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board in 2014.
The Disappearance and Initial Theories
The aircraft's silence after that transmission triggered widespread speculation. Theories ranged from the plane being brought down by hostile forces, with fingers pointed at the Chinese, Americans, and Russians alike, to the possibility that onboard systems were deliberately disabled from within the cockpit when the aircraft "went dark" upon entering Vietnamese airspace.
Despite the breakdown of its operating system, a substantial amount of data survived, including Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) data, radar data, Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) data, and Inmarsat satellite data. This information has been crucial in charting the aircraft's flight path and planning searches throughout the Southern Indian Ocean.
Research and Remaining Scenarios
The data repeatedly indicates that the aircraft kept flying for over seven hours across the Southern Indian Ocean before it ultimately vanished, most probably crashing into the ocean's depths. Simon Maskell, a professor in autonomous systems at the University of Liverpool, told The Diplomat about research his team conducted using Weak Signal Propagation Reporter (WSPR) data, which taps into low-frequency signals tracked by amateur radio operators. By analysing years of records from the WSPRnet database, the researchers managed to rule out numerous far-fetched theories.
Maskell revealed that, based on their conclusions, three plausible scenarios remain. He said: "The analysis we did indicated that there are three explanations that appear to be approximately equally consistent with the information we had at the time: there is a chance that a freak accident occurred and the crew were unable to communicate or land the aircraft elsewhere." He added: "[Or] it was a murder-suicide with the murderer alive when the descent occurred, [or] a murder-suicide with the murderer no longer alive when the descent occurred."
Ongoing Searches and Investigation
The murder-suicide theory gained traction after Malaysian authorities discovered a flight simulator at pilot Shah's home containing a route remarkably similar to MH370's last known trajectory over the Indian Ocean. However, there is no solid proof or suggestion to indicate that Shah, or his co-pilot, harboured any premeditated plans to seize control of the aircraft and deliberately bring it down.
Maskell pointed out that rival theories were less compatible with the evidence at hand. He noted that numerous searches have been carried out over the years, including a three-year operation by Australian authorities covering more than 120 square kilometres of the Southern Indian Ocean, all without success. "Given the plane has not been found and the area that has been searched is underpinned by assumptions that involve there being no human intervention during the descent, it now seems more plausible that there was human intervention during the descent," Maskell said. "That therefore slightly nudges up the probability that there was someone alive in the cockpit during the descent. However, all three explanations remain commensurately likely."
The Malaysian government has greenlit several new searches for the stricken aircraft, partnering with Ocean Infinity, a British search company operating on a "no find, no fee" basis. The hunt has focused on the Southern Indian Ocean, widely considered to be the plane's final resting place. Whether the latest search will produce any results remains to be seen, but the lack of definitive answers 11 years after the aircraft vanished underscores just how extraordinarily complex this case truly is.
