#flight mh370
Though it’s something that this account really isn’t meant for, I’d like to comment on the recently-disappeared flight, being an aircraft enthusiast as well.
The 777-200ER is an exceptionally safe aircraft; since its introduction in 1995 (nearly twenty years now) it has only recorded 38 total fatalities. The Malaysian aircraft disappeared overseas late at night (in local time), meaning that visibility would naturally have been minimal, especially overseas. It disappeared under circumstances alarmingly similar to that of Air France flight 447, which experienced catastrophic instrument failure after its Pitot tubes were frozen over by frigid weather—flight 447 did not issue any distress signals nor did its crew relay any emergency message.
This is where similarities end, however; flight 447 was an Airbus A330 which was widely controlled by a “glass cockpit” system, meaning that it was operated by a complex and sophisticated autopilot system that employed virtually no analog instruments at all. The lack of visibility meant that the crew did not realize that the computers were feeding false readings until it was too late. MH370’s 777-200ER worked with a similar “glass cockpit”, with the autopilot directing much of, if not all of, the IFR (instrument flight rules) flights. Alarmingly, wreckage from flight 447 was found within two days of its disappearance, despite having crashed in the much larger Atlantic Ocean.
Any trace of MH370 has yet to be found, to the dismay of many families. This opens a large array of possibilities:
(1) At the time of disappearance, Malaysian Airlines estimated that about 7.5 hours worth of jet fuel should’ve still been in the aircraft; considering the proximity between the aircraft’s last reported location and two large landmasses, it is very possible that the aircraft was piloted into one of these airspaces—however, both Vietnam and China report that such is not the case. Therein still lies, however, the distinct possibility that the aircraft crash landed into a mountainous region above the aircraft’s adjusted altimeter, assuming that it experienced failures similar to flight 447. If such is the case, there is obviously still hope, but time is dwindling.
(2) The other possibility is that it faced a fate similar to TWA flight 800, which faced a sudden mid-air explosion due to an electrical failure—this probably isn’t the case, however, as no debris has been found—in the case of an explosion, debris should be the first indicators. HOWEVER; there still lies the distinct possibility that the aircraft exploded over ground, with the debris raining down on the land below—this is a particularly unlikely possibility, though.
(3) The final possibility is that the aircraft simply crashed into the water, which still leaves the matter of debris.
The one consistent factor here preventing any kind of conclusion is the absence of debris—the aircraft simply disappeared, leaving behind no trace. Similar circumstances have only been produced with small aircraft, like when a squadron of WWII TBM dive-bombers suddenly disappeared over the Bermuda Triangle; wreckage was found years later, sunken into the ocean where it had created a large artificial reef; ultimately, however, the discovery of wreckage of five different Avenger aircraft did not yield any results, the flight’s disappearance remains a mystery. Will MH370 ultimately face the same fate?
