Internal malfunctioning
Chris Goodfellow an experienced pilot, sees this situation as follows:
There were reports that Malaysian military radar (which is a primary radar meaning the plane is being tracked by reflection rather than by transponder interrogation response) has tracked the plane on a southwesterly course back across the Malay Peninsula into the straits of Malacca.
There is probability that the airplane got internal malfunctioning and it was moving toward airport for safe landing
Captain was experienced pilot with 18,000 hours of flight experience and he should know about closest airports and be able to turn suddenly airplane. Probably he was taking a direct route to Palau Langkawi a 13,000 foot strip with an approach over water at night with no obstacles. He did not turn back to Kuala Lampur because he knew he had 8,000 foot ridges to cross. He knew the terrain was friendlier towards Langkawi and also a shorter distance.
According this theory the pilot did all the right things. He was confronted by some major event onboard that made him make that immediate turn back to the closest safe airport.
Losing transponders and communications makes perfect sense in case of fire. There was most likely a fire or electrical fire. In the case of fire the first response if to pull all the main busses and restore circuits one by one until you have isolated the bad one.
If they pulled the busses the plane indeed would go silent. It was probably a serious event and they simply were occupied with controlling the plane and trying to fight the fire. Aviate, navigate and lastly communicate. There are two types of fires. Electrical might not be as fast and furious and there might or might not be incapacitating smoke. However there is the possibility given the timeline that perhaps there was an overheat on one of the front landing gear tires and it blew on takeoff and started slowly burning. Yes this happens with under-inflated tires. Remember heavy plane, hot night, sea level, long run takeoff. There was a well known accident in Nigeria of a DC8 that had a landing gear fire on takeoff. A tire fire once going would produce horrific incapacitating smoke. Yes, pilots have access to oxygen masks but this is not for the case of fire. Most have access to a smoke hood with a filter but this will only last for a few minutes depending on the smoke level.
Next, they were overcome by smoke and the plane just continued on the heading probably by autopilot until either fuel exhaustion or fire destroyed the control surfaces and it crashed.
This pilot was a hero struggling with an impossible situation trying to get that plane to Langkawi. A hijack would not have made that deliberate left turn with a direct heading for Langkawi. It would probably have weaved around a bit until the hijackers decided on where they were taking it.
Fire in an aircraft demands one thing - you get the machine on the ground as soon as possible. There are two well remembered experiences. The AirCanada DC9 which landed in Columbus Ohio in the eighties. That pilot delayed descent and bypassed several airports. He didn't instinctively know the closest airports. He got it on the ground eventually but lost 30 odd souls. In the 1998 crash of Swissair DC-10 off Nova Scotia was another example of heroic pilots. They were 15 minutes out of Halifax but the fire simply overcame them and they had to ditch in the ocean. Just ran out of time. That fire incidentally started when the aircraft was about an hour out of Kennedy. Guess what the transponders and communications were shut off as they pulled the busses.
There were reports that Malaysian military radar (which is a primary radar meaning the plane is being tracked by reflection rather than by transponder interrogation response) has tracked the plane on a southwesterly course back across the Malay Peninsula into the straits of Malacca.
There is probability that the airplane got internal malfunctioning and it was moving toward airport for safe landing
Captain was experienced pilot with 18,000 hours of flight experience and he should know about closest airports and be able to turn suddenly airplane. Probably he was taking a direct route to Palau Langkawi a 13,000 foot strip with an approach over water at night with no obstacles. He did not turn back to Kuala Lampur because he knew he had 8,000 foot ridges to cross. He knew the terrain was friendlier towards Langkawi and also a shorter distance.
According this theory the pilot did all the right things. He was confronted by some major event onboard that made him make that immediate turn back to the closest safe airport.
Losing transponders and communications makes perfect sense in case of fire. There was most likely a fire or electrical fire. In the case of fire the first response if to pull all the main busses and restore circuits one by one until you have isolated the bad one.
If they pulled the busses the plane indeed would go silent. It was probably a serious event and they simply were occupied with controlling the plane and trying to fight the fire. Aviate, navigate and lastly communicate. There are two types of fires. Electrical might not be as fast and furious and there might or might not be incapacitating smoke. However there is the possibility given the timeline that perhaps there was an overheat on one of the front landing gear tires and it blew on takeoff and started slowly burning. Yes this happens with under-inflated tires. Remember heavy plane, hot night, sea level, long run takeoff. There was a well known accident in Nigeria of a DC8 that had a landing gear fire on takeoff. A tire fire once going would produce horrific incapacitating smoke. Yes, pilots have access to oxygen masks but this is not for the case of fire. Most have access to a smoke hood with a filter but this will only last for a few minutes depending on the smoke level.
Next, they were overcome by smoke and the plane just continued on the heading probably by autopilot until either fuel exhaustion or fire destroyed the control surfaces and it crashed.
This pilot was a hero struggling with an impossible situation trying to get that plane to Langkawi. A hijack would not have made that deliberate left turn with a direct heading for Langkawi. It would probably have weaved around a bit until the hijackers decided on where they were taking it.
Fire in an aircraft demands one thing - you get the machine on the ground as soon as possible. There are two well remembered experiences. The AirCanada DC9 which landed in Columbus Ohio in the eighties. That pilot delayed descent and bypassed several airports. He didn't instinctively know the closest airports. He got it on the ground eventually but lost 30 odd souls. In the 1998 crash of Swissair DC-10 off Nova Scotia was another example of heroic pilots. They were 15 minutes out of Halifax but the fire simply overcame them and they had to ditch in the ocean. Just ran out of time. That fire incidentally started when the aircraft was about an hour out of Kennedy. Guess what the transponders and communications were shut off as they pulled the busses.
Hijack
Steven Frischling, a US aviation security expert, said he thought the plane had been forceably taken. “Four hours after the aircraft went missing my primary source told me unequivocally that this was a pilot-involved incident,” he said. He said everything pointed to the idea that the Boeing 777 had not crashed, as there was “no evidence” to support it. “One of the positions on the plane that would be filled with a large metal cargo container is unaccounted for on the manifest,” he said. “So there is unexplained cargo. I don’t know who or what was on that plane that they wanted, but they wanted the aircraft, I think it’s on the ground, being hidden or dismantled.”
John Cane of Cane Associates Aviation Consultants and former lieutenant colonel squadron commander in the US Marine Corps flying Harriers, said he thought the plane was either at the bottom of the Indian Ocean or in thick canopy jungle in Malaysia or Thailand. He said: “If it flew on for six hours or more after the last communication it’s not a malfunction because they would be looking for the first opportunity to land. “That drives you back to the logic that it was a criminal act, especially with the change of direction and changes in altitude,” he added. Jim Brauchle, a former US air force pilot who is now an aviation lawyer, believes the plane has most likely crashed into the Indian Ocean. He said: “If it had crossed any coastline, even without its communications, it would have been picked up on radar. The theories of it potentially landing somewhere — is it possible? Sure. Is it probable? I don’t think so. "It would need a 5,000ft to 6,000ft-long decent runway. If it tried to land on some distant aerodrome or literally a field it would crash and we would most likely know about it.”
Robert Mark, a commercial pilot and editor of Aviation International News Safety magazine, said:“As time goes on things that seemed outlandish are becoming more plausible. The latest is the theory that MH370 shadowed a Singapore Airlines flight. The Israelis have done this before, shadowing a 747 with a fighter jet so that from the ground radar it looks like one aircraft. "We are going to find out ultimately that the people who took this aircraft were as good at planning as the people behind 9/11.”
John Cane of Cane Associates Aviation Consultants and former lieutenant colonel squadron commander in the US Marine Corps flying Harriers, said he thought the plane was either at the bottom of the Indian Ocean or in thick canopy jungle in Malaysia or Thailand. He said: “If it flew on for six hours or more after the last communication it’s not a malfunction because they would be looking for the first opportunity to land. “That drives you back to the logic that it was a criminal act, especially with the change of direction and changes in altitude,” he added. Jim Brauchle, a former US air force pilot who is now an aviation lawyer, believes the plane has most likely crashed into the Indian Ocean. He said: “If it had crossed any coastline, even without its communications, it would have been picked up on radar. The theories of it potentially landing somewhere — is it possible? Sure. Is it probable? I don’t think so. "It would need a 5,000ft to 6,000ft-long decent runway. If it tried to land on some distant aerodrome or literally a field it would crash and we would most likely know about it.”
Robert Mark, a commercial pilot and editor of Aviation International News Safety magazine, said:“As time goes on things that seemed outlandish are becoming more plausible. The latest is the theory that MH370 shadowed a Singapore Airlines flight. The Israelis have done this before, shadowing a 747 with a fighter jet so that from the ground radar it looks like one aircraft. "We are going to find out ultimately that the people who took this aircraft were as good at planning as the people behind 9/11.”