The mystery of the MH370 flight disappeared into thin air 11 years ago and the « yellow » of the close encounter with another plane

Over four hours after making his tracks lose perhaps there was still a chance to review the Boeing 777 by Malaysia Airlines vanished into thin air with 239 people on board. With a little more speed, the Malaysian authorities could have tried to ask an Airbus A380, passing through the Indian Ocean, to look better around. Around 6 and 10 in the morning, on March 8, 2014, the two planes would have passed « reasonably close », crossing their journeys. Airbus towards Dubai. Boeing towards nothing.

An open case

Eleven years after the fate of the MH370 flight remains the greatest mystery of the skies. A mystery fueled in recent weeks also by the crossing of the tracks of the aircraft that on that morning – late night in Italy – were making their classic connections. One, in particular, has attracted the attention of many, experts and enthusiasts: the Emirates Ek407 flight took off by Melbourne, Australia, and directed in the United Arab Emirates. At one point, the Airbus A380 Emiratine has presumably passed above the Boeing 777. While in the last few days another hunt for the wreck has started in the ocean.

The journey

At 00.42 of 8 March (17.42 of 7 March in Italy), the Boeing of Malaysia Airlines takes off from the track 32 right of the Kuala Lumpur airport with destination Beijing, China. At the commands there are Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah and the first officer Fariq Abdul Hamid. Behind them, 227 passengers and 10 flight attendants. « Goodnight, Malaysia three seven zero », replies the commander Shah at 1.19 and 30 seconds. These are the last words from the jet. Forty minutes after departure, the plane is expected to enter the Vietnamese airspace, but this does not happen. With a series of passages – considered intentional – the aircraft gradually disappears from radar.

The most plausible hypothesis

According to the commander (retired) Patrick Blelly and Jean-Luc Marchand (a career in air traffic management)-authors of an analysis presented to the prestigious Royal Aeronautical Society in London-Shah has somehow dismissed the first officer, he deactivated the automatic driver, he turned off the various transmitters, in the meantime, in the meantime to the left, returning back to the left, towards the Strait of Malacca. And from there to turn to the left again, proceeding straight, until the fuel exhaustion, sinking into the southern Indian Ocean, without still finding himself. It is, at the moment, the most plausible explanation.

The discovery on the computer

At the beginning of the investigations, characterized by delays and omissions, it turns out that among the deleted files of the computer of the flight simulator – that the commander Shah had built at home – there were some tracks to the southern Indian Ocean without a specific destination. On February 2 and 3 – a few weeks before the missing jet – the man had been practiced by deviating towards the Strait of Malacca, vialing left straight to the south of the Indian Ocean. On February 20 he canceled the tests. In these years and despite the repeated requests Malaysia Airlines, the Malaysian government and the local civil aviation authority have never answered questions from the Courier.

To hunting the aircraft

The research of the plane – start immediately after the disappearance in the Gulf of Siam, the Southern Chinese Sea and the Strait of Malacca – move towards the Indian Ocean when it turns out that some satellite data have « followed » the plane up to a point that is about two thousand kilometers west of Perth. It is there that one of the greatest operations in history starts, with dozens of ships, helicopters and reconnaissance means that sift around 320 thousand square kilometers of sea. In January 2017, the governments of Malaysia, Australia and China stop, also losing the hope of the help of black boxes. Some debris of the plane – three, those confirmed – are found on the coasts of Eastern Africa and on the islands of the Indian Ocean.

New searches

In 2018 Kuala Lumpur commits the company Ocean Infinity to deal with new research by offering to pay up to 70 million dollars. But without success. In recent days, the US robotic society has returned to those waters but with a technology that, according to experts, is radically new and could finally lead to finding the wreck. This time the agreement is based on the « No Find, No Fee »: if nothing is found, Malaysia does not pay the 112 million dollars agreed. Ocean Infinity will patrol an area of ​​15 thousand square kilometers in the next 18 months.

The two aircraft

In these days there is a lot of discussion on another aspect: that of the possibility of identifying Boeing. The tracks provided by Flightware – platform that monitors air movements – are those of eleven years ago, with reduced coverage, compared to today, and less precision in the data provided. Those recorded show that at the time of the « crossing » the EK407 flight was proceeding with a quota of just over 7 thousand meters and 861 kilometers per hour. Information not confirmed, but deduced, because in that clove of heaven the aircraft had no signal receivers transmitted by the transponders nearby.

The possibility of patrolling the area

Could it be something? « If Malaysia had immediately alerted Australia, the Melbourne area control center – responsible for a large portion of heaven, also above the Indian Ocean – could have asked the crew of the EK407 flight to take a look around », confirm to the Courier Three pilots. « It is not an unusual procedure, every now and then it happens to receive this type of request – they continue -, for example when the controllers are unable to get in touch with some plane, perhaps due to a communication problem ».

The help of the light of day

The night of the disappearance of the Boeing 777 The Asian controllers asked other planes to look around in the Gulf of the Siam and the Andaman Sea. « But in a much more difficult context because it was late at night and the Boeing was really difficult to see if it is true that the commander turned off the transponders », the drivers consulted think. Which is different over five hours later from the departure « with the sun already in sight and sufficient visibility to see other planes even with a naked eye at a reasonable distance ».

The last moments

In short, the Airbus A380 could have gone through not only of the disappeared plane, but also to meet its journey. Even if they had warned the crew to take a look and try to identify Boeing things would not have changed much: the direct flight to Dubai « would not have started to chase the flight MH370 in the middle of the ocean – support the pilots -, but certainly it would perhaps have helped to put a firm point » where the jet that half Asia was looking for. The older Boeing engine, older, according to the technicians should be stopped first. The left one a quarter of an hour later.

The new technology

Seven and a half hours after taking off by Kuala Lumpur the MH370 flight has exhausted the fuel and faded at sea about ten minutes later. The eyes are all on the new technology used in research by Ocean Infinity which resorts to sophisticated underwater drones, capable of descending up to six kilometers of depth and sliding the seabed for a maximum of hundred consecutive hours. The drones are controlled at a distance and when anomalies on the seabed are detected, the appliance is redirected to capture Sonar images.

The difficulties

In case of interesting discovery, everything is « mapped », with the help of computers, in different stages. A not easy operation and for this reason the professionals invite to caution. That part of the Indian ocean is among the most complicated and unstable in the world: the waters are often very moved, the waves can even reach 20 meters. Conditions so extreme that – as it happened in previous shipments – for a few days it will be impossible to send the underwater drones in depth.