It’s fast approaching the two year anniversary of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which mysteriously disappeared on 8 March 2014.
The Boeing 777-200ER was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members when it lost contact with ground control during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Little is known about the aircraft’s last final moments, except that according to a Malaysian military radar, it appeared to have steered off path and travelled over the Malay Peninsula and over the Andaman Sea.
A single wing fragment found near Reunion Island in July last year, confirmed the aircraft was downed at some point during the flight.
However, the reason for the aircraft’s fate remains a mystery with very little evidence for a conclusive answer.
Australian investigators have however, ruled out one popular theory – that the aircraft was brought down a suicidal pilot.
Since the plane went missing, people have speculated that perhaps one of the men in charge may have switched off communications, turned the aircraft toward the Indian Ocean and either crashed it or let it fly until it ran out of fuel.
The Australian columnist and former commercial and military pilot, Byron Bailey, said the Australian Transport Safety Board (ATSB) has never assumed pilot involvement.
“Right from the start the ATSB has assumed no pilot involvement.”
Byron Bailey, The Australian columnist
He went on to question their decision to exclude the pilots saying:
“But only an expert B777 pilot could have disabled the extensive communications-avionics suite when the aircraft disappeared electronically,” he said.
“Only an expert pilot could have reprogrammed the FMS to fly to the southern Indian Ocean, otherwise the B777 would have flown on to Beijing.
“Only a pilot could have lowered the flap for the controlled ditching.”