Relatives and friends of the 239 people on board are still waiting for clarity. For the anniversary on Tuesday, there are new disturbing theories that are put forward in a book and a documentary.
The Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 was en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. On March 8, 2014, at 1:21 a.m., it disappeared from radar screens. Veteran Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah’s last words from the cockpit: “Good night, Malaysian Three Seven Zero.” A satellite then receives so-called ping signals from the machine for seven hours. It takes about that long for the tank to be empty.
Later, some debris from the aircraft washed up on coasts along the Indian Ocean. However, there is no trace of the fuselage of the plane, the occupants and the flight recorder. Malaysia, China and Australia launch a two-year underwater search that ended in January 2017 with no results. A search by the US company “Ocean Infinity” also yielded no results. However, it is still assumed that the Boeing crashed into the sea and is now lying on the ground somewhere at a great depth.
Launch or intentional crash?
Various attempts to explain the mystery of the MH370 have been circulating on the Internet for years. There is speculation about a kidnapping, the suicide of a pilot, a fire with toxic gases on board that rendered everyone unconscious. There is also a persistent rumor that the plane could have been shot down by the military on purpose or by mistake. Evidence in all cases: none.
A book by the French journalist Florence de Changy now brings the US military and a spy device into play. Her report “Disappeared – What Really Happened to Flight MH370?” was published in January. at Ullstein also in German. For the research, the Asia-Pacific correspondent for the newspaper “Le Monde” traveled to China and the Maldives and spoke to relatives, eyewitnesses and diplomatic circles in Malaysia and the USA, among others.
Their conclusion: A third party could have intervened – because of possible high-quality espionage technology of American origin in the cargo of the machine. “A device that the Chinese urgently wanted to get their hands on,” she writes. When the US noticed the theft and found out that the valuable device was already on its way to Beijing, they saw red.
The US military may have accompanied the plane with interceptors and eventually shot it down, the author concludes. She probably fell into the sea north of Vietnam. Whether it was a “gross mistake” or a “last desperate attempt to prevent the plane and its special cargo from falling into the hands of the Chinese” remains open. But she also doesn’t rule out a shooting down by China “in this highly sensitive region”.
Sky moderator suspects pilots as the culprit
In Australia, the documentary “MH370: The Final Search” was presented by Sky News presenter and investigative journalist Peter Stefanovic at the end of January. In it, aviation experts say a 22-minute circular loop in the Boeing’s flight path, discovered last year, could hold the key to solving the mystery.
There was no reason for Captain Shah to be circling off the coast of Sumatra unless there were “possible negotiations” between him and someone else during that time, aviation author and former pilot Mike Glynn says in the documentary. “My theory has always been that the captain is responsible.” Glynn believes the pilot may have caused the crash out of anger at a sentencing the day before of Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, to whom he is said to be distantly related. However, other experts question this motive.
Peter Stefanovic is convinced that thanks to the new findings and modern technologies, the search area can be limited to a few hundred square kilometers of ocean. “Do you think MH370 will ever be found?” a Sky News Australia presenter asked Stefanovic in an interview. “I think so,” he replies. “But what it takes is money, interest and the will of the Malaysian government.” This has always emphasized that if there is “new and credible information”, they will resume the search. Stefanovic thinks that this point has now come.
Source: Nachrichten
