08 March 2024 , 06:00
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Ten years ago today, on March 8, 2014, the Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 took off from Kuala Lumpur with 239 people on board.
It should have landed in Beijing, China, later that day but instead disappeared less than an hour after take-off. The wreckage of the Boeing 777 has never been found, nor have any trace of the passengers and cabin crew on board.
Debris began to wash up on beaches across the Indian Ocean more than three years after the plane vanished. Heartbreakingly, the search for the missing jet was called off in 2018 - but there are still no answers as to what actually happened to Flight MH370.
Last week the Malaysian government said it would fund a new search if there was compelling evidence.
Speaking at a press conference in Melbourne the PM revealed: “We have taken the position that if there is a compelling case, evidence that it needs to be re-opened, we’re certainly happy to reopen.
MH370 theory claims new 'three-part riddle' could solve missing plane mystery
“Whatever needs to be done must be done.”
Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah went down with the planeConspiracy theories surrounding the plane circulated almost as soon as it went missing.
Did the pilot deliberately change the course in a gruesome murder suicide or was the plane hijacked?
Were its controls remotely hacked and was it landed safely outside of the radar that should have been tracking it?
MH370 set off in a normal take-off from Kuala Lumpur but 38 minutes into the flight it made its final communication with air traffic control.
It disappeared from conventional radar minutes later but was tracked by military systems for another hour, where it seemed to be deviating from its planned flight path.
First Officer Fariq Abdul Hamid could have died in an explosion in the cockpit (ENTERPRISE NEWS AND PICTURES)Journalist Ean Higgins author of The Hunt For MH370 believes he knows exactly what happened to the jet.
Amateur detective Mick Gilbert came up with the theory, although there is no concrete evidence that this is what happened.
He claimed there was a devastating blaze in the plane's cockpit around 40 minutes into the flight when the windshield heater on the pilot's side caught fire.
Ean says this could have burned out some circuits, including the secondary radar transponder and the communication systems. Pilots are trained for emergencies just like this and would have simply put on their oxygen masks and cut the power to the heater.
Doomed Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 may have 'crashed in different ocean'
But Ean claims this led to a catastrophic chain of events that caused the deaths of everyone on board. By cutting power, the crew would also have switched off the satellite data unit, which meant they were no longer linked to satellites.
Ean then believes the First Officer Fariq Abdul Hamid, will have been the one in charge of the plane while Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah dealt with the blaze. As soon as the fire was under control the captain and first officer would have made a distress call.
Emergency training for pilots stresses that making sure the plane remains airborne and finding a course for the nearest airport are the two initial priorities in an in-flight emergency. The third is to radio for help and to let air traffic control know what is happening, which means the plane could have changed route without anyone on the ground being aware.
However, Ean believes that during the crisis, one of the oxygen masks the two pilots were wearing was yanked out of its socket. The cockpit would then have been filled with the contents of the oxygen bottle, which is a highly flammable gas, and could easily cause an explosion.
Captain Zaharie was already on his feet and trying to deal with the flames - but First Officer Fariq would have been incinerated as he tried to control the plane. An explosion of this size would have weakened the windshield of the aircraft, which would in turn have caused a rapid decompression.
Grieving relatives have never found out what happeend to their loved ones (Getty Images)In these situations, oxygen masks would fall from the overhead compartments, giving passengers 12 minutes of air in the out-of-control plane.
Ean then says Captain Zaharie could have fled the cockpit to reach an oxygen mask before he fell unconscious before making his way back into the front of the plane. With the communication equipment destroyed in the explosion, the captain then had a truly horrifying decision to make.
He had just minutes of oxygen left and many of the passengers were dead or already in comas as their air supply ran out.
Captain Zaharie could either try to crash land over Penang, a heavily built up area, and possibly save himself and the flight attendant who had helped him back into the cockpit but at huge risk to the thousands of people on the ground.
Or he could divert the aircraft over the Southern Indian Ocean and crash land in the sea. It would mean everyone on board would perish but would save the lives of the innocent people on the land below.
While many have doubted this theory, one key element does give it some credibility. When Captain Zaharie re-entered the cockpit it would have automatically switched the satellite communications system back on. Mystery has surrounded why it was switched off and then back on again.
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Last week the Malaysian government said it would fund a new search if there was compelling evidence. Speaking at a press conference in Melbourne the PM revealed: “We have taken the position that if there is a compelling case, evidence that it needs to be re-opened, we’re certainly happy to reopen.
“Whatever needs to be done must be done.”
On Sunday, Malaysia’s transport minister Anthony Loke said he was also in talks with marine robotics company Ocean Infinity.
He said: ” We are waiting for Ocean Infinity to provide suitable dates, and I will meet them anytime that they are ready to come to Malaysia.”
The company’s CEO, Oliver Plunkett, later confirmed it wanted to continue its hunt for the missing jet after a failed attempt in 2018.
In a statement, Oliver said: “We remain interested in returning to the search for MH370 and are actively engaged in trying to make this happen.
“We now feel in a position to be able to return to the search for missing aircraft MH370 and have submitted a proposal to the Malaysian government.
“We hope to get back to the search soon.”