24 March 2014, 07:29 PM IST
The MH370 mystery is probably the most baffling one to solve in aviation history. With more than 26 countries going around in circles to determine the fate of the 777 jet, it has opened more possibilities, theories, wild guesses than ringing in any form of conclusions. Every day there is a new tangent in which the case seems to be diverting itself into. The expanse of the possibility theory is as much as the search area in the deep Indian Ocean that the Chinese, the Australian and the French teams are scouring. They are trying to find a needle in an Ocean. The latest twist to the MH 370 saga has been an unidentified call from a mystery woman made to the Captain of MH 370 using a sim purchased with a fake address. The sightings in the dark and dire swirling waters have not led to anything concrete. Our hearts go out to the passengers, the crew, their families and friends even as wild theories of hijack and suicide float in an ocean of mystery.
But, there are so many questions that remain unanswered in trying to solve this aviation riddle of gargantuan proportions. First of, in today's digital day and age is it possible for a 777 200 ER with a wing span of almost 200 feet and 209 feet in length vanish without a trace? Yes. MH 370 has proven exactly this. What is more perplexing is the conflicting news that came in the first few days after its disappearance about its supposed route after last contact, thereby resulting in search teams scouring what is now deemed to be the 'wrong' sea. The South China Sea in this instance. Second, there is an indication that the transponders have been purposely switched off. This naturally raises another question, why should there even be a provision to switch off these transponders and the ACARS manually? After all, is it not these very systems that would be the most vital link between the plane and land in case of things going dastardly out of whack aboard the plane? Why would one make it even manually possible to turn it off? History proves it the only reliable link given that the satellite pings received several hours after take off have been rather inscrutable in determining the plane's exact position at the time of the last ping. Third, assuming that a non-crew member hijacked the plane, how did this person get access to the cockpit? If this was a crewmember, then where both the pilots in collusion with one another given that there were no 'alarms' raised at any point by either one. What about the other crewmembers? Assuming that nobody besides the pilot / pilots were involved, was it impossible for the other crew members to raise any form of alarm? Or was there no realization until it was too late of the supposed hijack? The scheduled flight between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing was 5 hours 49 minutes, the last ping was received approximately 7 hours 30 minutes after take off, after the plane had overshot it's scheduled flying time did the cabin crew not notice anything amiss and try to raise any alarm? There was no availability of the CAN aeromobile network on this particular flight, so it would have been virtually impossible for passengers and cabin crew to use the airline's network. Fresh reports coming in now indicate that the plane dropped from an altitude of 35,000 feet to 12,000 feet after making a sudden turn, albeit it is still unclear how long it took for the plane to descend to this height. This is a vital clue. Was there a mechanical problem that led to this descent that was tracked by military radar? Dailymail reported- 'Radar tracking shows the aircraft changed altitude after making the 'intentional' sharp left turn as it headed toward the Strait of Malacca, a source close to the investigation said.The anonymous official, who is not authorized to speak to the media, told CNN that flying at 12,000 feet in the heavily trafficked air corridor would've kept the missing jet out of sight of other aircraft. Mary Schiavo, an aviation analyst and former inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation, told the international broadcaster the new information was 'highly significant'. She said: 'It explains so many pieces that didn't fit together before.' Now, if we have a scenario where something happened, the plane made a dramatic turn and dropped from 35,000 feet to 12,000 feet, this scenario would fit what a pilot would do in the event of a catastrophic on-board event, such as a rapid decompression, a fire, an explosion.'That's what you would have to do, descend, get down and turn around and try to get back to an airport that could accommodate an ailing plane.'
It is possible that the sudden decompression blew out the transponders and vital communication links. The possible decompression led to oxygen deprivation which rendered both the crew and the passengers to pass out while the plane literally kept flying for several hours until it ran out of fuel and crashed into the deep Indian ocean. These jets can glide for sometime even after fuel runs out and engines fail, the 777 ER could have made a neat entry into the ocean and now czzzxprobably sits on the sea bed somewhere, who knows. It makes sense at this time to pay a bit of attention to a directive issued by FAA late last year. SUMMARY: We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain The Boeing Company Model 777 airplanes. This proposed AD was prompted by a report of cracking in the fuselage skin underneath the satellite communication (SATCOM) antenna adapter. This proposed AD would require repetitive inspections of the visible fuselage skin and doubler if installed, for cracking, corrosion, and any indication of contact of a certain fastener to a bonding jumper, and repair if necessary. We are proposing this AD to detect and correct cracking and corrosion in the fuselage skin, which could lead to rapid decompression and loss of structural integrity of the airplane.
There needs to be a closure for the families and friends of those who boarded MH 370 and one hopes that the search efforts are conclusive, however tragic that conclusion may be. The Chinese and Australian search planes have reported sighting debris. White floating objects and strapping belts have been reportedly spotted. Satellites have captured larger images. Yet, there is difficulty in pinning any of these to MH 370. If the plane crashed due to mechanical failure, then the pilot was but doing his job heroically, till the last. The bottom line is, nobody has any idea what went wrong with the plane and who did what to that ill-fated plane. Will the plane ever be found? Nobody knows. In today's digitally advanced times, one thing is clear, man does not know it all and its time to trim the arrogance factor.
Follow Sharmila on Twitter @supershamz
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