Biggest Mystery in Aviation | What happened to MH370 Flight?
Hello, friends! 8th March 2014. At 12:42 in the morning,
Malaysian Airlines flight MH370,
took off from Kuala Lumpur.
This flight was headed to Beijing.
There were 227 passengers on this flight,
10 flight attendants,
and 2 pilots flying this plane.
Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah,
53 years old,
one of the seniormost captains in Malaysian Airlines.
Highly experienced.
And First Officer Fariq Hamid,
27 years old,
it was a training flight for him.
After completing this training flight,
he would have been fully certified to become a pilot.
This flight flies in the correct direction for about 20 minutes.
But at 01:08 in the morning,
this flight crossed the Malaysian coastline
and reached above the South China Sea.
In the direction of Vietnam.
Zaharie reported that the plane was at 35,000 feet.
Everything was running normally.
About 11 minutes later,
the airplane entered the jurisdiction of the Vietnamese Air Traffic.
That's why the Air Traffic Control of Kuala Lumpur,
radios the airplane saying, "Malaysian 370,
Contact Ho Chi Minh. 120.9.
Goodnight."
Captain Zaharie answered by saying,
"Good night. MAS 370."
Everything sounds normal.
And it was normal till this point in time.
But these words by Captain Zaharie
were the last words from this airplane.
After this, there was no news from this flight.
The Malaysian Airlines flight disappeared suddenly.
And this became the biggest aviation mystery in the world.
"Breaking news tonight,
a Malaysian Airlines flight, MH 370,
disappeared on route to Beijing."
"Flight MH370 entered in the Southern Indian Ocean."
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| Biggest Mystery in Aviation | What happened to MH370 Flight? | Dhruv Rathee |
How MH370 Disappeared?
Merely 30 seconds after entering the Vietnamese Airspace,
this plane disappeared from the radar suddenly.
It was 01:21 AM in the morning.
The Air Traffic Control in Kuala Lumpur didn't notice this,
and when they do, they think that
the plane had flown out of the range of their radar,
and had entered Vietnam's airspace.
So there's nothing unusual.
On the other hand, the Air Traffic Control in Vietnam,
saw that the MH370 entered their airspace,
but disappeared from their radar suddenly.
They tried to communicate with the plane,
but there was no response from the other side.
After repeatedly trying for 18 minutes,
Vietnamese controllers informed Kuala Lumpur,
that MH 370 had disappeared suddenly.
Generally, in such situations,
Kuala Lumpur's Aeronautical Rescue Coordination Centre,
should have been notified, within 1 hour,
about the disappearance of the plane.
But it was only after 4 hours had passed,
that an emergency response began
It was 06:32 in the morning.
This was the time by when the airplane should have landed in Beijing.
But it did not land.
A search operation was called immediately.
Efforts began to find the plane.
If you look at the map,
the plane was flying from Malaysia to Beijing,
Vietnam lies in the middle,
as well as the South China Sea.
So obviously,
the search operation began in the South China Sea,
to look for the plane.
This search operation was an international effort.
34 ships and 28 aircraft from 7 different countries,
try to look for this plane that morning.
But there was no trace of the plane.
About 4 days later,
on 12th March, it was reported that
though the plane had disappeared from the civilian radar,
but a military radar had spotted the plane that night.
And surprisingly, according to this military radar,
this plane was last seen
at 02:22 in the morning.
02:22 AM.
But it wasn't located above the South China Sea.
Rather, it was near the Andaman and Nicobar islands.
Westward from Malaysia, above the Strait of Malacca.
And according to the readings of this military radar,
this plane was flying North in the direction of the Andaman and Nicobar islands.
The other way from Beijing.
This news left everyone shocked.
Where did this plane go?
Did it fly in India's direction,
and crash in the Himalayas or in Kazakhstan?
Some more days later,
a new piece of evidence was discovered.
From satellite data.
It was found that the plane was trying to automatically communicate with a satellite.
It is actually quite common.
Large airplanes like the Boeing 777
they try to establish communication with satellites often.
To make their communication easier.
It is the same as your phone
trying to automatically connect to known WiFi.
It's similar.
But the problem was that
when this plane communicated with the satellite,
it merely tried to log in,
trying to establish a connection.
No data was transmitted about the location of the plane.
The satellite was simply aware that
this plane tried to communicate but nothing more about where the plane actually was.
Investigations into the Mystery
But some scientists and investigators thought
to use this to approximate the location of the plane.
They thought that when the satellite received the communication,
the satellite would have moved its antenna towards the direction of the plane.
So they took the angle of the antenna of the satellite,
to measure it and make calculations upon it,
estimated the location of the plane.
As I said earlier,
the exact location couldn't be determined with the help of the satellite,
but it could be used to estimate
that this circle that you see in white color,
the plane could be anywhere within this circle.
When it tried to communicate with the satellite.
The plane tried to establish communication with the satellite 7 times.
That's why you can see 7 different circles in white color.
These are known as Satellite Handshakes.
Every circle shows the time when
the plane tried to communicate with the satellite.
The last circle here,
the 7th circle,
shows the latest time when the plane tried to communicate with the satellite.
The last point where this airplane could have been.
And it was really surprising because
this circle was huge!
It covers a lot of areas.
From Kazakhstan, China, Indonesia to Australia,
and covering a vast ocean,
the plane could be anywhere in the last circle.
Or perhaps further than this.
This was the last point it tried to communicate.
After this, the investigators did more calculations.
With the speed of the plane.
The remaining fuel in the plane,
and then estimated that
the plane could be in this shaded area of the circle.
On this arc of the circle.
It was famously called the 7th Arc.
This 7th Arc is 2,000 km west of Australia,
and occupies a large expanse of area.
It was in such a part of the ocean
that hasn't been explored much.
On this map, you can see
the location of the satellite that was used for the prediction.
The outermost yellow dotted circle that you see,
is the range till which the plane could travel with its fuel.
With the flight time of 7 hours.
And the curved arc in red that you can see,
is the 7th Arc,
the place where the plane is assumed to have crashed.
After this, several search operations were called,
The yellow shaded regions show you
the places where the search operations were conducted.
And the orange area
is the priority search area,
where the most number of search operations were conducted.
By April 2014,
the search operations on the surface of the ocean were stopped.
Because it wasn't fruitful.
Since the plane had crashed, it would've sunk into the ocean.
It wouldn't be floating on the ocean's surface.
And so deep ocean searches were being conducted.
At this point in time, this was the largest and
the most expensive search operation conducted.
For weeks, months, and even years,
they tried to look for the plane but didn't find anything.
3 years later,
And after spending $160 million,
they called off this operation.
And this operation was deemed a failure.
But there was one piece of good news amidst all of this,
in July 2015,
the first piece of debris was found from this plane.
The debris reached the Island of Réunion by floating.
This island is in the East of Madagascar.
The flaperon of the plane was found here.
You can see it in the photo,
it is a broken part from the plane.
After this, in 2018,
an American company Ocean Infinity signed a new contract with the Malaysian government.
They wanted to conduct the search operations
and if they aren't able to find the plane,
they wouldn't charge any fees.
No, find, no fee.
On this condition, they began a new search operation.
They have highly advanced underwater surveillance vehicles.
While conducting this search operation,
they were mapping the ocean floor.
And in this search operation, they found
in the area of the 7th Arc,
that there are several underwater volcanoes,
several cliffs and mountains as well.
They kept searching for months.
But unfortunately, they failed in their mission too.
They couldn't find anything.
Now, let's return to the topic.
During this, the Malaysian police started their independent investigation.
They decided to run background checks on the passengers of the plane.
And a background checks on the pilots of the plane
to look for their history.
And whether someone tried to hijack the plane.
Theories
After these investigations,
some theories came forward.
About what could have happened to the plane exactly.
Come, let's look at the theories and assumptions one by one.
First, they started with how could the plane disappear from the radar.
Either there'd be any electrical failure in the plane.
Or there'd be an accident,
Or there might be some technical failure in the plane,
because of this, the equipment stopped working.
Or perhaps any passenger or pilot
switched off the transponder manually.
Doing this intentionally.
In the first theory,
Captain Zaharie Shah is being accused.
It is being said that the captain intentionally disabled communication
and took the plane and crashed it into the ocean.
But what could be the reason for him to do this?
Some people say that
he may have not been in the right mental state.
Some people believe he was suicidal.
Some people claim that this was a result of hijacking,
like a terror attack.
But why is Zaharie Shah actually being blamed here?
There are some arguments that support this theory.
The first point is that
the airplane turned nearly 180°
from Vietnam back to Malaysia,
autopilot couldn't have done this on its own.
The airplane's pilot must have done this manually and intentionally.
The second point is that
the airplane was flown directly above the border between Thailand and Malaysia.
It is said that it was deliberately done.
It was done intentionally.
So that they could escape the airspace radar of both countries.
The third point is really interesting,
it is said that Zaharie Shah had a flight simulator at his home
which isn't very unusual on its own,
but on that flight simulator, he had mapped out a path,
while playing a game,
The path, coincidently, was near the same path,
that MH370 actually flew.
Hearing this, you may think this must've been the case.
But the official in charge of this search operation
completely denied this theory.
He said that this couldn't have happened because
there are many counter-arguments too.
First, he was a highly experienced and seasoned pilot.
He was respected by all.
He had no family problems,
no economic problems,
he didn't have any past behavior to suggest this,
so there is no reason to doubt his integrity.
If a pilot wanted to commit suicide,
to crash the plane,
there would be some sign in his behavior or in his life.
But nothing as such was found.
That's why the second theory that is afloat,
is that there must be some hijackers on the plane,
some terrorists.
They must have done this.
When this second theory came forward,
2 passengers of the plane were under suspicion.
They were Iranian,
and they were suspicious because they were traveling with fake passports.
One of them had the passport stolen from an Italian man.
And the other had the stolen passport of an Austrian man.
Both passports were stolen in Thailand.
It is said that these men wanted to use the stolen passports
to go to Europe and settle there.
First, they had taken a flight to Beijing,
and then they were supposed to take a flight from Beijing to Europe.
Investigations revealed that
the mother of one of these guys was present in Hamburg, Germany.
Waiting for her son.
But in the end, this theory of terror was rejected,
because other than these stolen passports,
there was no proof that
they were actually terrorists intending to carry out a terror attack.
They simply wanted to go to Europe and settle there.
Using the stolen passports.
In fact, Interpol confirmed this,
saying that they were probably not terrorists.
That's why we come to our third theory.
It is said to be the most probable.
It is said that
the passengers and the crew on MH370,
fainted because of oxygen deficiency.
Including pilot Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah and his co-pilot.
They were unconscious too.
The entire plane actually passed out.
And kept running on autopilot.
And there must have been some technical malfunctions on autopilot too,
but basically, the autopilot kept running till
the fuel of the plane ran out.
And then the plane crashed into the ocean.
Now, how could this oxygen deficiency have happened?
There are several theories for it.
Some people claim that there may have been a fire in the cockpit,
electrical fire.
Due to this, many systems may have stopped working,
including the transponder.
Some people believe that there may have been an accident due to which
there was a sudden shortage of oxygen.
Some people blame hijackers here as well.
That some hijackers may have tried to create an oxygen deficiency.
Let's take a possible example to see what might have happened.
If I have to cite a typical example of this theory,
it is said that this plane
as soon as it entered the Vietnamese airspace,
the pilots noticed some malfunctions,
some wrong with the plane.
So the pilot turned the plane 180°,
to take the plane back to Malaysia.
But when the plane started flying towards Malaysia,
a terrible accident may have occurred,
which led to oxygen deficiency,
and everyone present on the plane fainted.
Because of oxygen deficiency.
Several systems stopped working
and then the plane kept flying on autopilot.
The military radar spotted the plane after this.
And the autopilot turned Southwards suddenly,
and it kept flying Southwards above the Indian Ocean,
and crashed into the ocean 2,000 km West of Australia.
Initially, there were many more theories about the plane.
such as it was abducted by aliens.
Or that the US military may have shot down the plane
and it was trying to hide the fact.
Or that Russian President Putin knows the location of the plane.
Or that a new Bermuda Triangle may have formed at the place.
There were many such theories.
The New proof (Mystery Solved?)
But obviously, they are not very likely.
Many years have passed since this incident.
And now in 2022, friends,
finally, there's proof
to tell us where this plane may actually be.
Friends, this news is from 1 month ago.
Richard Godfrey, a retired aerospace engineer,
claims that he had found out the secret of this mystery.
He did his calculations using some radio wave technologies.
"Richard Godfrey combined data from British Inmarsat Satellite,
figures from Boeing,
Australian oceanographers,
and new WSPRnet, amateur radio wave technology."
"I have been tracking back,
through the data,
and out of that tracking MH370,
I'm sure they will be able to find the aircraft."
To explain this technology would be too detailed for this video,
it is complex technology.
But it isn't a very new technology.
Basically, he used the reflections of radio waves,
to predict the path of the airplane.
It is a technology that can catch the reflections of radio waves.
Once a radio wave is emitted from a source,
it gets reflected by the atmosphere,
and weak radio waves reach some other place.
And if a plane is flying from the path of the radio wave,
you can say that it can be noticed.
He built a computer program
that can recognize the flight paths of airplanes through weak signals.
And according to his calculations,
today, the MH370
actually lies on top of the 7th Arc.
It is exactly on this point of the 7th Arc, in his opinion.
And is 4 km underwater.
Under the ocean, as I said, there are many cliffs and underwater volcanoes.
You'd say that this area was already searched.
True.
In the most expensive search operation conducted by Australia,
this area was already searched.
But it is possible that they missed it somehow.
Although the second search operation was conducted,
by the Ocean Infinity,
they hadn't searched this point.
Their instruments were more detailed.
But Richard trusts his calculations so much
that he has pinpointed the exact location with an accuracy of 40 Nautical Miles.
Of the location of the plane under the sea.
He has proposed that
a new search operation should be conducted within a radius of 40 Nautical Miles
and they would find it.
This would be a very small area compared to the previous search operations.
They would have to thoroughly look here.
This is good news for the mystery of this flight.
There may actually be a solution here.
Although, some people do criticize Richard's methodology,
that the methods he used to determine the location of the plane
is not accurate enough.
That the plane wouldn't be found here.
But Richard believes that
if the operation is started now,
it would take only 1 year,
and by the end of 2022,
we would be able to see whether the plane is here or not.
In Richard's opinion, the plane would be found here, obviously.
A Drift Analysis was also conducted,
looking at the ocean current.
So that if the plane had indeed crashed in that area,
the location of the various pieces of the plane,
that would've flowed with the ocean current to reach various places.
And according to this drift analysis,
some pieces would have reached Madagascar and the islands around it,
and those have indeed been recovered.
To date, 27 pieces of the plane have already been found.
On several islands across the world.
This drift analysis fits properly with Richard's analysis too.
So perhaps, in the near future,
we may get to uncover the mystery about what might have happened.
But I hope that you found this video informative.
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