By Douglas V. Gibbs
The search for missing Flight 370 continues. Debris is beginning to appear, and many are beginning to doubt their original "hijacking" theories, and now believe the plane was flown into the ocean. Satellite imaging has recently captured images of 122 objects floating in the Indian Ocean, objects believed to be from the missing Malaysian flight. The objects are near another location where debris has been located, adding to the evidence that the plane crashed in the vicinity. Missing since March 8, with 239 people on board, the search has been an international effort. So far, none of the debris has been definitively identified as a part of the aircraft.
Weather has been the major obstacle during the search. Clouds have obscured satellite images, and stormy weather has hampered the aircraft in the area and vessels on the water participating in the search. Weather will continue to be a problem, as more bad weather approaches, in the form of cold front passing through the search area that is expected to bring rain thunderstorms, low clouds and strong winds.
The investigation also envelopes the world of technology, where searchers are scrutinizing the plane's "ping" with satellites after it lost communications. A partial ping has led some investigators to believe the plane experienced a failed login to the system, and may have tried to reset itself. By looking at the positions of the pings, investigators believe they will be able to plot a course of where the plane was heading. A mathematical analysis of the satellite signals has so far established that the plane was indeed flown into the sea.
Another kind of "ping" is being sought, as well. This time, from the black box, in which the battery is designed to last about a month - leaving only two weeks to zero in on the signal, and retrieve the important part of the wreckage. The black box may be the one item that could answer all of the questions.
The majority of the passengers were Chinese, and China has been a large part of the search. The relatives of the missing passengers have been holding out hope, angry at Malaysia for declaring the entire passenger list dead before finding aircraft debris. A rare protest was allowed by the Chinese government at the Malaysian Embassy in Beijing, where protesters held signs, shouted, and threw water bottles. The police in Beijing had to, at one point, tussle with the protesters to keep them separate from the media.
Evidence regarding one of the pilots is also emerging, and according to a fellow pilot, the flyer should never have been in the air. Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah's world was crumbling, said the long-time associate. He had been facing serious family problems, including separation from his wife and relationship problems with another woman he was seeing. This theory brings up the possibility that the crash was not some plot to steal the plane, some unfortunate mishap or failure of the aircraft's mechanical system, but a suicide by a distraught pilot who had purposely steered the flight to a part of the world he had never flown before.
According to investigators, up to the point when the co-pilot said "all right, good night" to Malaysian traffic controllers, the plane had been flying normally. Military radar tracking then showed the aircraft made a sharp turn shortly after the final communication, and began flying at altitudes as high as 45,000 feet, and as low as 12,000 feet, before it disappeared.
The pilot may have been taking the plane for one last joyride, able to do so by incapacitating the co-pilot while any other member of the flight crew was kept out of the cockpit.
"It is very possible that neither the passengers nor the other crew on-board knew what was happening until it was too late."
It would be very hard to prove it was a suicide, even if the flight recorder was found, but considering the alleged state of mind of the pilot, the possibility has to be considered.
My only question is, in light of all of the possible circumstances regarding this flight, how long before someone suggests that humans can't be trusted to fly aircraft, and that all flights should be controlled by computers?
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
Satellite spots 122 objects in search for missing Malaysia flight - Fox News
Flight MH370: Pilot in wrong state of mind to fly - New Zealand Herald News
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