As finals week creeps up on Alina Chernoff, so does stress and anxiety over final chemistry exams, multi-step projects, and course grades. The 19-year-old chemistry student has found the second floor of the library at LaGuardia Community College a quiet sanctuary where the panic over finals disappears. But with most of the library now inaccessible […]
Mystery and Tragedy in the South China Sea: Flight MH370 2 Years Later
On the 8th of March 2014, a Malaysian flight that was bound for Beijing from Kuala Lumpur went missing. The air traffic control attendants lost any contact with flight MH370 on that fateful day; that was the beginning of the search for the missing plane, which was carrying 239 individuals. Experts were called to search for the plane in the South of the Indian Ocean, with no results. A glimmer of hope appeared on July 2015 when a barnacle- encrusted flaperon was located 2000 miles from where the crew was searching for the plane.
Experts were positive of the fact that the located piece was part of Boeing 777, which are a group of airlines that were missing. A technician from the Airbus Defense and Space (ADS-SAU) in Spain was the first one to take note of one of the digits belonging to the Malaysian airlines on the flaperon. Regardless of this, there is still an ongoing search of the missing plane.
A new piece of plane debris was located in March of 2016 in Mozambique, but it has not yet been confirmed that the fragment belong to flight MH370. Experts say it is likely an aircraft component from the missing plane but the Malaysian authorities have to conduct further analysis. Other portions of the plane have been found including a piece of the tail section, and a fragment of interior door panel. Parts of the aircraft may or may not continue to be located or washed ashore.
Flaperons are control surfaces on the wing of an aircraft that help to stabilize the plane during low speed flying during take-off and landing.
It should be noted that the triple seven is among the world’s most automated airplanes. On this fateful day, flight MH370 was to serve as a path along the corridor that would take the triple seven airlines to their intended destination-Beijing. What is known for a fact is that Malaysian airline 370 registered an altitude of 35,000 feet in just twenty minutes after taking off. Probably the most puzzling aspect about the disappearance of this flight is that no distress calls were made, it had no wreckage, and above all, there was no com- munication albeit the presence of the staff that was meant to monitor the autopilot. Because of this mystery, many conspiracy theories have emerged to explain what happened to this flight.
Shot Down Theory
The theory opined that a missile aimed for and shot down flight 370, which explains the lack of any wreckage. However, the theory has a limitation, where the force of a missile was likely to leave behind radar signatures that would have been traced by now.
Sabotage Theory
The theory is founded on the evidence pertaining to the effect that the communication systems of the plane were turned off on purpose. Because of this, investigators were inclined to believe that someone who was on the plane deliberately tampered with its course. The same party may have hidden the location of the plane from radar system, which explains the mystery of its disappearance.
However, the shortcoming of this theory is that disabling the communication system would require the party to turn off the circuit breaker that is above and behind the overhead panel. This seems impossible because pilots have very limited access to this part of the plane; only maintenance does.
Hijack Theory
It has emerged that all the passengers that were onboard the plane are clear of any suspicion, which leaves the pilot and his staff. According to the Malaysian Chief of Police, Khalid Abu Bakar, the most possible scenario is that the plane was hijacked. Regardless, there is a weakness in this case, given that hijacking does not lead to a plane being off the radar completely. Despite the transponders (device that emits an identifying signal in response to an interrogating received signal), being disabled, there is still a possibility that the plane could have been tracked from ground radar. Most importantly, no ransom was demanded for the supposed hijacking, and no one claimed responsibility for any suspected destruction. Hence, the theory of disappearance into the Indian Ocean is still upheld.
According to the Malaysian government, what may have happened is that the plane may have descended slowly into the water after running out of fuel, which explains why the flaperon was found on the French Indian Ocean Island.
Satellite expert Zaaim Redha Abdul Rahman posits that the place could have made a slow landing into the water, taken a few minutes to float, and then got completely submerged as a whole. The rationale for this is the presence of the flaperon, which could not have violently come off the plane. There is a very high likelihood that the flaperon came off after the plane was already in water. Regardless, the disappearance of the plane is still a mystery; probably the greatest aviation mystery of all time.
