On This Day in History: March 8

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

AUDIO VERSION HERE

On March 8, 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared along with its 227 passengers and a dozen crew. Years later, the evidence points to the flight captain intentionally crashing the plane in a mass murder–suicide.

I hate flying. If a wing rips off at 35,000 feet, you have two scream-filled minutes to ponder your imminent doom while trying to scribble a goodbye-I-love-you message to your family on a highly flammable cocktail napkin.

--On This Day in History Shit Went Down: March 8, 2014--

Anyway, the fuck happened? The Boeing 777-model aircraft was flown by a first officer doing his final training flight prior to full certification, and the captain was one of the airline’s senior pilots. It departed from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing; Air Traffic Control had final communication 38 minutes after takeoff. Military radar tracked it for another hour as it deviated west of its intended flight path. It then turned south over the Indian Ocean and remained aloft for another seven hours. Satellite data revealed a steep descent that obliterated the plane.

It crashed somewhere in the South Indian Ocean. Dozens of ships and aircraft participated in the search, but it would be more than a year before any debris floated ashore. Massive investigations followed. The Malaysian government is corrupt as fuck and was the opposite of helpful. Conspiracy theories have been prevalent, but all that can be deduced from the evidence is that the loss of Flight 370 was intentional. Someone on board made it happen. It can’t be explained by mechanical failure or naturally occurring phenomenon. The flight path is too bizarre yet controlled.

What’s more, it happened from within the cockpit. There is no other way to control the plane. Being that the course diversion took place only two minutes after the captain’s final conversation with ATC, and the cockpit is secured against forced entry, it’s most unlikely this was a hijacking. Considering the limited possibilities, it seems either the captain or first officer purposely caused the crash. Such a thing has happened several times before, where a pilot decided to murder crew and passengers in taking their own life.

The background of the first officer sends up no alarms, but an investigation into Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah is full of red flags. He was described as lonely and sad after the breakup of his marriage. Records show he conducted a flight simulation roughly matching the final path of Flight 370. It would’ve been easy for him to order the first officer to check something in the cabin, lock him out, and depressurize the plane. Added to this, a long-time friend of Zaharie, also a fellow captain, reluctantly proclaimed that his friend probably was the guilty party, describing it as “the necessary conclusion.” In 2020 it was rumored by Tony Abbott, the former prime minister of Australia, that top Malaysian officials had come to the same conclusion mere days after the crash.

Subscribe for access to cool shit:

Get both volumes of ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY SH!T WENT DOWN