What happened to flight MH370? Don’t believe the Netflix documentary
Unless it's on National Geographic, I'm very skeptical of documentaries. It seems that many films that label themselves as such are primarily about presenting Netflix's new documentary, MH370: the plane that disappeared on March 8, 2014, looks like it looks more like it did when it departed Kuala Lumpur for Beijing just after 00:40 local time. Pieces of the plane washed up on Reunion Island and in several African countries indicating that it crashed somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean. The documentary suggests that the pilot, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, intricately planned a mass murder suicide, and that he had a home flight simulator that simulated a plane crashing in the middle of nowhere. However, conspiracy theorists have stepped in, convinced that their outlandish statements are just as legitimate as the “MH370 consensus” as it is. This theory ignores some important facts and ultimately ignores facts and questions.
Published : 2 days ago by Quincy Lizotte in Entertainment
Unless it’s on National Geographic, I’m very skeptical of documentaries. It seems that many films that label themselves as such are primarily about presenting a polished, highly compelling story – but whether that story is true is of secondary importance. Depending on the subject matter, a documentary that chooses to have a casual relationship with the truth can range from mostly benign entertainment (such as Animal Planet’s Mermaids) to nefarious propaganda (such as that of Michael Moore Fahrenheit 9/11). Sadly, Netflix’s new documentary, MH370: the plane that disappearedlooks more like the latter.
On March 8, 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370) departed Kuala Lumpur for Beijing just after 00:40 local time. It never reached its destination. About 40 minutes into the flight, the plane disappeared from the airport’s radar and took an unexpected U-turn, flying over the Malay Peninsula and then over the Andaman Sea next to Thailand.
What happened next is the subject of speculation, but at least this is what we know: pieces of the plane washed up on Reunion Island and in several African countries (such as Madagascar, Mozambique, Mauritius and South Africa), indicating that it crashed somewhere in the United States. the southern Indian Ocean. Using a model of ocean currents, scientists predicted 12 months in advance that debris would drift west toward Africa — and sure enough, the debris was eventually found there.
So, how did the plane end up in the southern Indian Ocean when it was supposed to fly north to China? The existing evidence strongly suggests that the pilot, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, intricately planned a mass murder suicide. Three facts stand out in particular.
At first, friends described Zaharie as lonely and sad. According to a 2019 article in The Atlantic Ocean:
‘His wife had moved and lived in the family’s second home. By his own admission, he spent a lot of time pacing empty rooms, waiting for the days to pass between flights… Zaharie seems to have become somewhat detached from his former, established life. He was in touch with his children, but they were grown and gone… There is strong suspicion among aviation and intelligence investigators that he was clinically depressed.”
Second, and most damning, Zaharie had a home flight simulator that simulated a plane crashing in the middle of nowhere in the southern Indian Ocean. The simulated flight path was almost identical to the flight path researchers believe MH370 actually took. Third, there is no credible way for anyone other than the pilot to change the flight path.
Coincidentally, almost a year later, on March 24, 2015, the copilot of Germanwings Flight 9525 deliberately crashed the plane into a mountain in France, killing all 150 people on board. And, of course, 19 hijackers on 9/11 planes crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania. So “pilot mass murder-suicide” is a real phenomenon (although the hijackers weren’t exactly “pilots”).
Unfortunately, there is no “smoking gun” that proves Zaharie guilty. Richard Godfrey, an avionics expert who has studied MH370 for nearly a decade and has extensive experience designing and operating avionics systems for commercial and military aircraft, told Big Think in an interview: “Most evidence points to a murder-suicide by Captain Zaharie Shah, although most of the evidence is insufficient to hold up in court.”
We are therefore in the frustrating position of knowing the probable truth but being unable to prove it. And precisely because there is no 100% uncertainty, conspiracy theorists have stepped in, convinced that their outlandish statements are just as legitimate as the “MH370 consensus” as it is. This is where the Netflix documentary comes in.
The three part series MH370: the plane that disappeared proposed three theories to explain what happened: (1) the pilot, (2) the hijacking, and (3) the interception. To its credit, the documentary explained everything I wrote above in the first theory about the pilot. If only Netflix had stopped there. Instead, it proposed two more theories.
In “The Hijack,” the documentary relied heavily on journalist Jeff Wise, who suggested that Russian terrorists hijacked the plane by climbing into an electronics compartment (called the Main Equipment Center, MEC) hidden under the first class cabin, flying the plane, using location data from fake satellites and fly to Kazakhstan. But this theory ignores some important facts and ultimately creates more questions than answers.
For example, Godfrey explained to the Airline Ratings website that it is not possible to access the MEC without being noticed by someone; it is not possible to take control of an aircraft from the MEC; satellite location data is captured and distributed in real time and cannot be manipulated; and the radar systems in India, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and China reportedly detected a stray Boeing 777 heading toward Kazakhstan. Besides, if the plane landed in Kazakhstan, why haven’t we heard from the passengers?
In “The Intercept,” Netflix delves further into fantasy by promoting the work of French journalist (I use that word very loosely here) Florence de Changy, who proposed that the US government use a special aircraft called AWACS to attack MH370’s communications system. (making it disappear from radar), after which it was shot down. Why? According to De Changy, MH370 was carrying “poorly documented Motorola electronics equipment” that the US did not want China to have. So the US killed 239 innocent civilians to make sure China wouldn’t get that equipment.
A problem with this theory – beyond the complete lack of evidence to support it – is that a conspiracy of this magnitude would require the cooperation of thousands of people in several countries. This is essentially a mathematical impossibility because sooner or later one of the many conspirators would accidentally or deliberately blow his cover. It’s been nine years; surely someone, somewhere, would have said something right now.
Although not presented in the documentary, De Changy also believes that the shooting down of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine by Russian separatists in July 2014 was actually an act of retaliation by Vladimir Putin on behalf of China that lost many people. civilians on MH370. Needless to say, there’s no evidence for that either – although she did publish her research in a book that Big Think has no plans to review.
For the record, the documentary contained several scenes where interviewees questioned each other’s motives and credibility, giving the viewer the impression that no one is trustworthy.
Video is a powerful medium. People believe what they see, especially when it’s paired with a compelling story. That’s why dictators around the world make sure they control TV news. But instead of giving the 239 suffering families and the general public a true story, Netflix used the pain caused by a horrific tragedy to push lies and conspiracies to increase viewership. They should be ashamed.
Topics: Documentaries, Netflix