generalspeaking

The Labyrinthine Mystery

Even as Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 flight MH 370's plane communications systems were disabled the final message: "All right, good night" was received from the co-pilot, with not the slightest hint that anything might have gone wrong. That simple item give impetus to the suspicion that one or both of the pilots was involved somehow in the plane's disappearance.

Suspicion has hovered around the pilots; were they involved. Together, or alone, or with a passenger or crew? Was the flight continued under duress or were they in command throughout the entire event, whatever the outcome happened to be? Did someone break into the cockpit? Was there a threat of violence enabling entry to the cockpit? What might the motivation have been?

Pretty basic questions; answers are not simply elusive, but non-existent, just like the plane's whereabouts.

Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, senior pilot on the flight, appeared to be a perfectly normal individual, whose professional and personal life seemed beyond reproach. Involved in his community and charitable work, he loved his job and revelled in the pleasure he got from flying. The last 'ping' from the disabled ACARS system was sent out seven hours, 31 minutes after the plane took off.

Experts place the jet somewhere in a huge area as far north as Kazakhstan in Central Asia, or, alternately, far into the southern Indian Ocean. Most people who believe they know what must have occurred steadfastly repeat that the plane crashed, and is deep in the sea with all its passengers. And then there are others who suggest that the last ping may have been received when the plane was on land.

There are, some claim, abandoned airstrips from the old USSR days in former aligned Central Asian republics, where a plane could land and not be detected.

Australia was sending one of its two AP-3C Orion aircraft to remote islands in the Indian Ocean, the world's third-deepest and one of the most remote stretches of water in the world, where radar coverage is just about nil. That trajectory would indeed have the jet deep under water.



Irrespective of which, the search area is now inclusive of eleven countries the plane might have overflown, according to Malaysian Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein. And the number of countries involved in the massive and mysterious search operation now stands at 25.

The search effort has moved from the 'shallow' waters of the South China Sea and the Strait of Malacca. Malaysia has appealed to other foreign governments to render sensitive radar and satellite data they may have, to enable the investigation to move from theory to practical fact in the plane's final trajectory.

Labels: Disaster, Malaysia

posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, March 18, 2014