MH370: The Plane That Disappeared (Netflix)

[XelaM]

Has anyone seen this new Netflix documentary about MH370?

It's just unbelievable that in our time a passenger plane can just disappear without a trace.

I find the conspiracy theories in that documentary totally bizarre, but I also feel very sorry for the pilot's family who has effectively been scapegoated without any real evidence that he brought the plane down. If it was a murder-suicide why would he fly for another 8 hours instead of just crashing into the ocean where he was? It makes no sense. It's also an insane coincidence that two of Malaysian Airlines planes suffered tragedies in the space of just a few months in 2014 - nothing to do with any mechanical issues on the planes.

There are some dead zones in terms of radar but plenty of satellite pings that give a vague “here or here” area. But currents, waves, depth etc.

Air France 447 took 2 years to find as they were off course by quite a distance due to a storm and was a huge collaborative effort.

With MH370, that doesn’t seem to have happened.

This quickly gets into an area that shouldn't really talked about in detail, but it's probably OK to point out when these rules were proposed it quickly became clear there were some valid arguments ( both on safety grounds and on security rounds) against the two person rule...

Hence it's use (or not) is usually a down to discussion and agreement between the regulator and the airline.

Yes, it was when moving into a different airspace, knowing that neither would be properly watching that he turned off course. It’s only when the flight doesn’t appear as planned in the next airspace that anyone realises and that can be hours

@notimagain It’s similar with CCTV. Airlines and aircraft manufacturers love to blame pilot error, so many cases where the pilots have been blamed despite the fact that there were known maintenance issues (pitot tubes I am looking at you) or a scenario in which they hadn’t been trained for as it’s supposed to never happen (Gimli Glider, for example). So they don’t want it in there.

But with some incidents, particularly 447, it would have been useful. Airbus deny there’s an issue with the layout of the cockpit but there clearly was in this instance (and frankly it makes no sense that it’s the way it is), so the pilots were named as a cause. Just having the audio isn’t much good if they can’t see how the cockpit alarms etc cause humans to react.

ATC shouldn't assign codes that will trigger an alarm when you get handed over to the next sector...the emergency codes are stand alone...

As for on/off when changing codes, yes for the old kit but on modern transponders and certainly those such as fitted to the 777 you don't select off or standby when changing code ..... in fact doing so would not be a great idea because you'd potentially lose TCAS.

Sadly I think pilot suicide is the most likely. I’ve watched the first two episodes, not seen the third yet.

Thank you to everyone for the additional info. Clearly, the documentary is not very good and I had to laugh when that guy who claimed the plane was hijacked by Russians to land in Kazakhstan, which (according to him) is a "very poor country". Errr... it's an extremely wealthy huge oil & gas state 😂

@coolmum123 the audible podcast is called Deepest Dive The search for MH370.

@Stoechas thank you 😊

FWIW the initial thoughts by many in aviation, especially those flying the 777, in the hours/first day or so after this aircraft disappeared was that it might have been down to a highly unlikely but just about credible problem involving the (flight)crew oxygen bottle, which is housed below the flight deck on the aircraft. One theory was a bottle explosion, leading to damage in the main avionics bay, in turn leading to depressurisation, flight crew incapacitation and also loss of some avionics systems.

Once it became clear that Transponder/ACARS transmissions data was not lost simultaneously then that pretty much ruled out thoughts of a sudden catastrophic event and everything started to point to the theory that this was a deliberate act done by somebody onboard. What was seen on military primary radar after the loss of communications did also make it look very much look like there was a deliberate attempt made to put the aircraft beyond the reach of investigators.

Given circumstances whoever was involved would have to have decent technical knowledge of the aircraft but not be aware of some of deeper features of the satcom system (those are the features that led to the continuing handshakes, analysed by Inmarsat and others). Objectively that's the sort of systems level knowledge a type rated 777 pilot or avionics engineer rated on the 777 would have.

As for exactly who?...There are certainly obvious candidates.

As for why? Knowing that might need more info from at least one of the national authorities involved, It's always been rumoured it's perhaps more than they are willing to provide.

In conclusion I think to most people in commercial aviation there's theories about the mechanics of what most probably happened appear very straightforward, it's the motive behind it all that's the real unknown.

Just remember, the pilot had a setup in his home where a simulator ditched the plane in the ocean

The reason there was hardly any debris is because he wanted it to be untraceable

He glided it down the best he could so it wasn't destroyed creating lots of debris that's easy to find

Eventually it sunk whilst mainly intact. Parts have since washed up

I don't for one minute think it was the pilot. The similator had him hundreds of miles away from where they are thinking MH370 flew.

Personally, I think it was something to do with cargo, and maybe a China/US bringing down.

I know there is little that leads us to believe that, but there is so much that goes on that we don't know about.

That's true but where exactly the (supposed) sim data had the rumoured simulated ditching isn't really relevant, it's that even something remotely close to what might have happened was simulated (supposedly) by somebody involved that's really troubling. It's not generally the sort of thing something your average commercial pilot does for laughs and entertainment on their days off.

If you look at the systems loss sequence and what happened in the hour or so afterwards (the primary radar data) then if you actually know how something like a T7 operates trust me it's really really hard to come up with anything other then this being done by somebody on the flight deck of that aircraft with a 777 rated pilot level of knowledge.

To swerve towards US/Chinese involvement you have to start coming up with theories such as one of the rostered pilots being in the pay of those governments, or somebody in the pay of those governments being onboard and somehow gain access to the Flightdeck.....

I know. I have little evidence of this, just a gut feeling.

And if the pilot was so intent on hiding the whereabouts of the plane when he decided on this course of action, would he really leave evidence on a simulator?

I don't really do gut feelings when it comes to the mechanics of stuff like this.

TBH though if you want to look for a cover up or lack of openness I know many people in the Flight Safety world did have a gut feeling about the behaviour of some associated with the Malaysian government, rather than US or China.

I am not technical, you obviously are!

I am only doing a superficial post on this, that's all.

“Personally, I think it was something to do with cargo, and maybe a China/US bringing down.”

Do you mean shot down?

No idea. As I said, I am not technical, I just think there were greater forces at work.

The Malaysian government did try to cover what was politically embarrassing. They covered up ineptness and incompetence and rather than conspiracy.

The flight data points to a deliberate act by someone in the cockpit. Given that the captain had practised this flight on his simulator, the evidence points to him.

I enjoyed this documentary. Im obviously very suggestible because each time they presented a theory i was 'that coukd be true' apart from the kasakstan thing and i dont think awacs shoot things.

Now ots been a few days my only query is why were the fbi the people that took the flight similator stuff and why did they sit on it so long.

BTW, just as a pedantic but possibly relevant point to debates like this:

"The pilot" term, singular gets used a lot. There were two 777 rated (as in qualified) pilots in the Flight Deck of that aircraft, so in this case we maybe need to be mindful of that if pointing any fingers at any specific individuals.

As I recall it the First Officer on that flight was going through the company acceptance course, roughly speaking a few flights with a trainer covering company procedures and maybe seeing some of the routes. Prior to that phase of training he will have done all the technical and simulator training and his licence will have been signed off by the regulator to show him as being qualified on type.

Two fully rated/qualified pilots upfront is standard for most commercial operations, it's not simply a case of airliners being operated by "a pilot" (singular) and an lowly less qualified assistant.

Yes I knew there were in essence two pilots.

why were the fbi the people that took the flight similator stuff and why did they sit on it so long

I agree. That was odd

Yep, that's very been the general thinking in the aviation community for a long time...the Flight Safety people have grumbled for years about a certain state not being very helpful.

I'd only, as per my previous post and out of respect for most of the deceased, leave a miniscule amount of wriggle room around which pilot did it...

Comments like this can be naive at best & create outlandish theories at worst. notimagain is correct in what she is saying (I think we’ve established on here before that our DHs have similar ‘backgrounds’ - correct me if I’m wrong!) Unless a person can provide any particular evidence that ‘dark forces’ are at work then it’s often nothing more than a conspiracy. I understand how our minds can lead us on to those paths, sometimes it’s easier to accept than to think the pilot killed himself and took a plane full of people with him.