MH370 The Plane That Disappeared was released on the 8th It is directed by Louise Malkinson and produced by Harry Hewland for Raw TV. There are 3 episodes in the series with a runtime of 1 hour and 30 minutes each. It explores the mysterious disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in 2014.
The cast of the series includes family members of the passengers on the flight – Danica Weeks, Ghyslaine Wattrelos and even the pilot’s wife Intan Othman. Journalists like Jeff Wise and Florence de Changy and Malaysian airlines staff Faud Sharuji and other independent investigators.
Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 was supposed to be a routine trip – A redeye from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, with 239 passengers and among them were 12 crew on board. But shortly after takeoff on a calm 2014 night, MH370 vanished from radar screens completely.
The shocking disappearance of a commercial airliner made headlines, sparked riots, plunged the passengers’ next of kin into a nightmare, and generated a global search for answers that never came.
MH370 The Plane That Disappeared Theories
Theory 1: Involvement of Pilot
The first theory talked about pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah and how he could be the one behind everything. It questioned his mental state, whether he was happy in his life or not. The aircraft, a Boeing 777 operated by Malaysia Airlines, last made voice contact with air traffic control at around 01:20 am when it was over the South China Sea, less than an hour after takeoff.
However, it disappeared from all radar screens soon after, with no idea where the plane might be. On further investigation, it was reported that the plane was still tracked on military radar. It showed that the plane turned sharply away from its original northeastern course to Beijing & headed west instead, crossing the Malay Peninsula, continuing that course until leaving the range of the military radar at 02:22 AM while over the Andaman Sea.
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They theorised that pilot Zaharie asked his co-pilot to get something & locked the pilot cabin. Then he turned off all the communication devices & changed the route completely while depressurizing the cabin which has a maximum of 15 minutes of oxygen, while the pilot has about 4 hours of oxygen limit. He flew in the opposite direction until passing out and crashing.
Deeming it to be a suicide mission and even linking it politically with the pilot attending a politician – Anwar Ibrahim’s rally and how it could be done to make a statement but there is no proof for it. If anything that can support the theory is the flight simulator that was procured from the pilot’s house & a similar route was seen to have been simulated on it.
Theory 2: Hijack by Russians
This theory was given by aviation journalist Jeff Wise that for covering the invasion of Russia on Crimea and diverting people’s attention from talking about the invasion, the plane was crashed by 3 Russian men. He supports his theory by stating the 3 Russian passengers who sat very close to the unlocked electronic bay hatch of the plane – the plane’s electrical system under a hatch located between the cockpit and first class – which is present on all 777 planes.
He theorized that one of the men went inside the electronic bay of the plane & turned off everything, controlling the plane from there & steering it in the opposite direction. However, this theory doesn’t stand correct technically as one cannot control or fly the plane from the electronic bay.
So far the first item of debris to be positively identified as originating from Flight 370 was the right flaperon. It was discovered in late July 2015 on a beach in Saint-André, Réunion island in the western Indian Ocean. Many other small pieces of the craft have been found by Blaine Gibson in Mozambique & Madagascar but people have been suspicious of his finding as he was able to find many parts on his first searches, despite the ongoing search by authorities.
Wise also tried to link Blaine with the Russians, as he has some business in the country & fluently speaks the language. Wise stated that he might be trying to mislead by planting the parts in those places but Blaine refuses any claims & even seem to have gone on searches with the victim’s families.
Theory 3: Involvement of USA Through AWACs
The third theory comes from Le Monde journalist, Florence de Changy. She theorises that the plane was carrying 2.5 tons of electronic cargo that was not even scanned, so nobody knows what was in it. But she believes that it carried some stealth technology for the Chinese Government & the USA didn’t want them to have it.
She further goes on to that maybe two American planes in Vietnamese airspace equipped with Airborne Warning & Control Systems (AWACs) jam MH370’s communication systems, and shoot it out of the sky when the pilot refused to land the plane on their command. However, the planes are not equipped to shoot anyone or anything like a commercial airliner down without making it in the news the next day.
Conclusively, the Netflix documentary is a mix and match of facts with conspiracy theories that it’s hard to distinguish what’s real and what’s not. There are no conclusive answers to what would have happened to the plane but the theories discussed seem nothing more than assumptions which aren’t based on any actual data. It also leaves out many things that have been proven and debunked and rather plays on the imagination.
MH370 The Plane That Disappeared is currently streaming on Netflix.
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