After more than 10 days and numerous theories as to the whereabouts of
Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH370, the Business Insider has reported
of an alternative theory proposed by a former pilot, which has emerged
as a very plausible cause for the disappearance of the aircraft.
A few days ago, American Chris Goodfellow had written his simple case
on his Google+ page on what he believed happened to the missing
aircraft.
Goodfellow had based his theory on the key information of the turn back
move shortly after the aircraft had left Malaysian airspace off the
east coast of Peninsular Malaysia.
His theory suggests that all relevant officials, investigators and the
international media are overthinking the incident behind the
disappearance of flight MH370.
Based on Goodfellow's theory, the following is what could have
transpired on board the aircraft, and more specifically in the cockpit:
-
Shortly after takeoff, as MAS flight MH370 was flying out over the
South China Sea, smoke began filling the cockpit, perhaps from a tyre on
the front landing gear that had ignited on take-off.
-
The captain immediately did exactly what he had been trained to do,
that is to find the closest airport and turn the plane toward it so he
could land.
-
The closest appropriate airport was in Pulau Langkawi, as it had a
massive 13,000-foot runway that could cater for the Boeing 777-200. The
pilot was likely to have known that beforehand, as any experienced pilot
with more than 18,000 flying hours under his belt would.
-
The captain programmed the destination into the flight computer. The
auto-pilot turned the plane west and put it on a course right for the
runway.
-
The pilot did not consider returning to Kuala Lumpur International
Airport because the plane would have to cross over a mountain range in
between. He knew the terrain to Langkawi would be friendlier and also a
shorter distance to cover.
-
The captain and co-pilot tried to find the source of the smoke and
fire, but it soon filled the cockpit and overwhelmed them (a tyre fire
would do this).
-
Such a fire could also short-circuit the cockpit systems one by one,
including the transponder. Quite possibly, both pilots had passed out or
died by then.
-
With no one awake to instruct the auto-pilot to land, the plane kept
flying on its last programmed course... right over Pulau Langkawi and
out over the Indian Ocean.
-
Eventually, six or seven hours after the incident, it ran out of fuel and crashed.
This pilot was a hero struggling with an impossible situation trying
to get that plane to Langkawi. No doubt in my mind. That's the reason
for the turn and direct route.
Goodfellow further elaborated that Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah did all the right things.
"He was confronted by some major event onboard that made him make that immediate turn back to the closest safe airport.
"For me the loss of transponders and communications makes perfect sense
if in the event of a fire, and especially an electrical fire. The first
response is to pull all the main busses and restore circuits one by one
until you have isolated the bad one.
"However, if they pulled the busses, the plane indeed would go silent.
It was probably a serious event and they simply were occupied with
controlling the plane and trying to fight the fire.
"Aviate, navigate and lastly communicate," Goodfellow wrote on the
priority that is set for pilots to follow in the event of any emergency.
According to Goodfellow's theory, one possibility, given the timeline
on how the fire started and then spread is that perhaps there was an
overheat on one of the front landing gear tires and it blew on takeoff
and started slowly burning. This could happen with under-inflated tires.
He added: "This pilot was a hero struggling with an impossible
situation trying to get that plane to Langkawi. No doubt in my mind.
That's the reason for the turn and direct route.
"A hijack would not have made that deliberate left turn with a direct
heading for Langkawi. It would probably have weaved around a bit until
the hijackers decided on where they were taking it.
"Surprisingly none of the reporters, officials and other pilots
interviewed have looked at this from the pilot's viewpoint. If something
went wrong where would he go? Thanks to Google Earth, I spotted
Langkawi in about 30 seconds, zoomed in and saw how long the runway was
and I just instinctively knew this pilot knew this airport.
"He had probably flown there many times. Also, another good clue would be the age and number of cycles on those nose tyres."
According to Business Insider this theory fits the facts and makes
sense, most especially because it explains the manual course change as
well as the "pings" that a satellite kept hearing from the plane hours
after the communications systems went down. – March 18, 2014.
http://my.news.yahoo.com/pilot-may-tried-save-plane-heading-langkawi-airport-135747514.html
