The curious case of Malaysian Airlines Flight number MH370 is getting murkier and murkier by the day. The plane was en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur and departed on its scheduled time. However, somewhere between the departure and arrival, the flight went missing.
As the days go by, the officials are sweating over the mysterious disappearance of a commercial liner into thin air. There are now over 20 countries involved in the search process, intricately analysing the data to find any absent clues that could shed more light on this bizarre case.
The latest developments in the Malaysian airlines disappearance point towards the involvement of perhaps the pilots manning the jet. The flight’s transponder seemed to have been switched off around 1:30 AM when it reached the South China Sea. As per the official report and the flight map, the flight MH370 made a sharp turn from that point and has not been traced since then. It takes great skill and refined knowledge of the airplane to pull off such a maneuver. The investigating authorities have been looking closely into the backgrounds of the pilot and the co pilot. The case of high jack or an unfortunate crash has not been ruled out.
This is not the only time in history when the aviation has reported strange mishaps involving flights mid air. Some of the most prominent ones are:
- AF447 from Rio to Paris, 2009: On May 31st 2009, AF447 took off from Rio at its scheduled time for Paris and six hours later, Air France officials confirmed that they have lost contact with the carrier and that it’s missing. Frantic search for the aircraft produced no signs of wreckage or terrorism until June 1st when the worst was confirmed, the plane had crashed with no survivors. All the passengers onboard AF447 had been killed. The investigations later proved that the plane met its unfortunate fate as a result of mechanical failure and human error.
- EgyptAir from JFK to Cairo, 1999: This accident reeked of conspiracy right after the plane went missing. The plane on its way to Cairo on Oct 31st crashed into Atlantic Ocean barely 30 minutes after being airborne. As per the investigations, pilot of the aircraft Gameel Al-Batouti was suffering from suicidal tendencies and deliberately led plane to nose-dive to its crash. However, ECAA (Egyptian Civil Aviation Authority) denied the claims made by the American investigators and attributed the fall to mechanical failures.
- MI185 from Jakarta to Singapore, 1997: On Dec 19th, one of the most mysterious crashes happened. MI185 took off from Jakarta bound for Singapore, crashed 30 minutes later into the river. The plane was barely 10 months old and had an experienced pilot and no disturbing weather conditions whatsoever. However, the crash was so devastating that no investigations could discover the mechanical issues. The plane just hurled to its final descent inexplicably.
- Japan Airlines from Tokyo to Osaka, 1985: The domestic flight between Tokyo and Osaka on Aug 12 could not sustain the badly patched repair work at the bottom of the plane that led to its final fall soon after it took off. Within 15 minutes of the plane being airborne, the plane’s rear bulkhead splintered that destroyed the hydraulic systems. Despite manoeuvring the aircraft for half hour in this condition, it finally crashed in the mountains of Ueno.
References:
- Straitstimes.com
- BBC.com
- Foxnews.com
