Experts investigating the missing Flight MH370 are exploring a new theory - that the pilot may have heroically steered the plane 'on fire' away from crashing into heavily populated areas.
The tragic disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines jet continues to be a mystery more than 20 months after it vanished without trace with 239 passengers and crew on March 8 2014.
But a new theory has emerged that it may have been down to a heroic act of sacrifice by the pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah.
Australian aviation enthusiast Michael Gilbert believes that the jet may have caught fire mid-flight - forcing a new course to have been plotted.
Experts have previously pointed the blame in the direction of Mr Shah - who, as one of those missing, is not able to defend accusations he deliberately crashed the jet into the ocean because of his 'marriage difficulties' at the time.
The search radius is so wide - nobody is exactly sure which ocean that might have been let alone where exactly or why.
So far the only major clue is that part of the plane - a flaperon confirmed to be from MH370 - washed up on Reunion Island near Africa in July 2015.
Analysis of the wreckage suggests Shah drove the plane into the Indian Ocean in a terrifying 'death dive' - 7 News reported that as the flap was not deployed, it ruled out the possibility of a controlled landing,
Meanwhile the MailOnline reports that Mr Gilbert has been looking into the maintenance records and flight history of the aircraft to back up his theory that a faulty windshield heater sparked a fire.
He suspects the resulting blaze forced the plane to divert to Penang but then a cockpit oxygen leak caused the fire to rapidly intensify.
He found '9M-MRO, the Malaysia Airlines' B777 that operated as MH370, was at a significantly increased risk of experiencing a windshield heater fire or failure'.
Mr Gilbert hypothesises: "A windshield heater fire can explain both the loss of the transponder signal and the interruption to the satellite communications link.
"At the first sign of smoke, a burning smell or a fire, the crew's initial reaction would have been to don their oxygen masks.
"I suspect that the captain got out of his seat to retrieve the cockpit fire extinguisher and fight the fire.
"The pilot would have realised there was no reasonable chance of manually flying the plane. There were no instruments, it was night, there was no moon, he could only occupy the cockpit for short periods of time and oxygen supplies were dwindling."
Crucially he then argues that the pilot "pointed the airplane in the safest possible direction" - away from densely-populated Penang and the busy shipping lane in the Straits of Malacca.
He continued: "I believe that the pilot then elected to do what many pilots in stricken planes had done in the past - steer it clear of populated areas.
"Moving to the end of flight, I believe that MH370 ran out of fuel... and came down about 200 kilometres outside the current search area."
Mr Gilbert's theory appears at least part backed up by US aviation safety consultant Captain John Cox who according to News Corp said: "Like many theories, I think he has overrun the evidence.
"But it is worth considering because Mr Gilbert is meticulous in his research."
Voice370 - a lobby group for the victims' families who were mostly Chinese - is yet to comment on this latest theory.
(culled from www.mirror.co.uk)
No comments:
Post a Comment