June 28, 2019 at 04:51What really happened with the disappeared Malaysian Boeing (part 1/3)
- Transfer
1. Disappearance
2. Coastal tramp
3. Goldmine
4. Conspiracies
5. Possible scenario
6. Captain
7. Truth
On a quiet moonlit night on March 8, 2014, a Boeing 777-200ER operated by Malaysia Airlines flew out of Kuala Lumpur at 0:42 and turned towards Beijing, rising to the intended train level 350, that is, to an altitude of 10,650 meters. Malaysia Airlines designation is MH. Flight number is 370. The aircraft was controlled by Farik Hamid, the co-pilot, he was 27 years old. This was his last training flight, after which he was waiting for the completion of certification. Farik’s actions were led by an aircraft commander, a man named Zahari Ahmad Shah, who at 53 was one of the oldest captains on Malaysia Airlines. According to Malaysian customs, his name was simply Zachary. He was married and had three adult children. He lived in a closed cottage village. Had two houses. In the first house, he had a flight simulator, Microsoft Flight Simulator, installed. He regularly flew on it and often wrote on online forums about his hobby. Farik was respectful to Zachary, but he did not abuse his power.
In the cabin were 10 cabin crew, all Malaysians. They had to take care of 227 passengers, including five children. Most of the passengers were Chinese; of the remaining 38, they were Malaysians, while the rest (in descending order) were citizens of Indonesia, Australia, India, France, the USA, Iran, Ukraine, Canada, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Russia and Taiwan.
That night, Captain Zachary worked with the radio while co-pilot Farik was flying the plane. Everything went as usual, but Zachary's programs were a bit strange. At 1:01, he reported on the radio that they had leveled off at an altitude of 35,000 feet - an unnecessary message in the area with radar surveillance, where it is customary to report a departure from a height, rather than its achievement. At 1:08 a flight crossed the coastline of Malaysia and headed across the South China Sea towards Vietnam. Zachary once again reported an aircraft height of 35,000 feet.
Eleven minutes later, when the plane approached a checkpoint near the area of responsibility of the Vietnamese air traffic control service, the Kuala Lumpur Center dispatcher sent a message: “Malaysian is three-seven-zero, contact Ho Chi Minh one-two-zero-point-nine. Goodnight". Zachary replied: “Good night. Malaysian three-seven-zero. " He did not repeat the frequency as it should, but otherwise the message sounded normal. This was the last thing the world heard from the MH370. The pilots did not contact Ho Chi Minh and did not respond to any of the subsequent attempts to call them.
A simple radar, known as the “primary radar,” detects objects by sending radio signals and receiving their reflections as if they were an echo. Air traffic control systems, or air traffic control, use the so-called "secondary radar." He relies on the active transponder installed on each aircraft, or the transponder, which sends more detailed information, such as the side number and height of the aircraft. Five seconds after the MH370 entered the airspace of Vietnam, its transponder icon disappeared from the screens of the Malaysian dispatch service, and after 37 seconds the aircraft became invisible to the secondary radar. The time was 1:21, 39 minutes passed after take-off. The controller in Kuala Lumpur was occupied by other sides located in a different part of the screen, and simply did not notice the disappearance. When after some time he discovered the loss,
Meanwhile, the Vietnamese air traffic controllers saw the MH370 enter their airspace and then disappear from the radar. Obviously, they misunderstood the formal agreement, according to which Ho Chi Minh should immediately notify Kuala Lumpur if the incoming plane does not communicate for more than five minutes. They tried to reconnect with the aircraft, but to no avail. By the time they picked up the phone to report the situation to Kuala Lumpur, 18 minutes had passed since the disappearance of the MH370 from the radar screens. This was followed by an outstanding manifestation of bewilderment and incompetence - according to the rules, the Kuala Lumpur Aviation Rescue Service Coordination Center should be notified within an hour after the disappearance, but by 2:30 this still had not been done. Four more hours passed before at 6:
By this time, the plane was supposed to land in Beijing. The efforts to find him were initially concentrated in the South China Sea, between Malaysia and Vietnam. These were international operations of 34 ships and 28 aircraft from seven different countries, but the MH370 was not there. Within a few days, the primary radar records extracted from the air traffic control computers and partially confirmed by the secret data of the Malaysian air force showed that as soon as the MH370 disappeared from the secondary radar, it turned sharply south-west, flew back through the Malay Peninsula and began to roll near Penang Island. From there, he flew northwest, up the Strait of Malacca and further through the Andaman Sea, where he disappeared outside the radar range. This part of the journey took more than an hour - and she suggested that the plane was not hijacked. It also meant that the matter was not in the accident and not in the suicide of the pilot that had been encountered before. From the very beginning, the MH370 led researchers in an unknown direction.
The riddle surrounding the MH370 has been the subject of ongoing investigation and a source of feverish speculation. Many families on four continents have experienced a devastating sense of loss. The idea that a complex machine equipped with modern technology and redundant communications may simply disappear seems absurd. It is difficult to delete a message without a trace, and it is completely impossible to disappear from the network, even if the attempt is deliberate. A plane like the Boeing 777 should be available for communication at any time, and its disappearance has given rise to many theories. Many of them are absurd, but all of them have arisen due to the fact that in our century a civilian plane can not just take the abyss.
One nevertheless succeeded, and after more than five years his exact whereabouts remained unknown. Nevertheless, now much has become clearer about the disappearance of the MH370, and today it is possible to recreate some of the events that happened that night. Sound recordings from the cockpit and data from the flight recorders will probably never be restored - however, what we need to know is unlikely to be obtained from the black boxes. Instead, you have to look for answers in Malaysia.
That evening, when the plane disappeared, a middle-aged American named Blaine Gibson was sitting in his late mother’s house in Carmel, California, sorting out her affairs and getting ready to sell her property. He heard news of an MH370 flight on CNN.
By education, Gibson, whom I recently met in Kuala Lumpur, is a lawyer. He lived in Seattle for over 35 years, but now spends little time there. His father, who died decades ago, was a veteran of World War I - he survived attacks of mustard gas in the trenches, was awarded the Silver Star for valor and returned to the service of the Chief Justice of California, having spent more than 24 years in this post. His mother was a graduate of Stanford Law School and an ardent environmentalist.
Blaine Gibson was an only child. His mother loved to travel the world, and she often took him with her, so at the age of seven he decided that the purpose of his life would be to visit every country in the world at least once. In the end, it came up against the definition of “visit” and “country”, but he remained true to the idea, giving up the chances of a stable career and having a very modest inheritance. In his own words, along the way he indulged in some well-known riddles, such as the end of the Mayan civilization in the jungles of Guatemala and Belize, the explosion of the Tunguska meteorite in Eastern Siberia and the location of the Ark of the Covenant in the mountains of Ethiopia. He printed his business cards “ Adventurer. Researcher. Striving for the truth", And began to wear a felt hat, like Indiana Jones. When it became known about the disappearance of MH370, Gibson's close attention to the incident was predetermined.
Despite the reflex refutations of Malaysian officials and the frank confusion in the reports of the Malaysian Air Force, the truth about the strange trajectory of the aircraft quickly revealed. It turned out that the MH370 continued to periodically communicate with the Indian Ocean geostationary satellite, operated by the British satellite communications company Inmarsat, for six hours after the disappearance of the aircraft from the secondary radar. This meant that there was no sudden catastrophe on the plane. Presumably, during these six hours he flew at cruising speed at high altitude. Communication sessions with Inmarsat, some of which were just confirmation of the connection, were short system connections - in fact, no more than an electronic whisper. The system for the transmission of the main content - entertainment for passengers, messages for pilots, automatic reports on technical condition - was apparently turned off. There were a total of seven connections: two were automatically initiated by the aircraft, and five others by the Inmarsat ground station. There were also two satellite calls; they remained unanswered, but eventually provided additional data. Two of the parameters were associated with most of these compounds, which Inmarsat recently began fixing and saving.
The first and more accurate of the parameters is known as burst-timing offset, let's call it “distance parameter” for simplicity. This is a measure of the transmission time to and from the aircraft, that is, a measure of the distance from the aircraft to the satellite. This parameter defines not one specific location, but all equally distant places - almost a circle of possible points. Given the range limits of the MH370, some parts of these circles become arcs. The most important arc - the seventh and the last - is determined by the last satellite connection, which is complexly associated with the depletion of fuel reserves and engine failure. The seventh arc extends from Central Asia in the north to Antarctica in the south, and the MH370 crossed it at 8:19 am Kuala Lumpur time.
Analysis of satellite data makes it possible to assert with confidence that the plane turned south. We know this from the second parameter registered by Inmarsat - burst-frequency offset. For simplicity, we will call it the "Doppler parameter", because the main thing that it includes is the measure of radio frequency Doppler shifts associated with high-speed motion relative to the position of the satellite, which is a natural part of satellite communications for aircraft in flight. For the satellite communications to function successfully, Doppler shifts must be predicted and compensated by on-board systems. This compensation is not entirely ideal, because satellites - especially as they age - do not transmit signals exactly as it was programmed in airplanes. Their orbits may deviate slightly, they also depend on temperature, and these imperfections leave distinct traces. Although Doppler shift values had never been used to determine an airplane's location before, Inmarsat technicians in London were able to notice a significant distortion, suggesting a southward turn at 2:40. The turning point was a little north and west of Sumatra, Indonesia’s northernmost island. With some assumptions, it can be assumed that then the plane flew right at a constant altitude for a very long time in the direction of Antarctica, lying beyond its range. 40. The turning point was a little north and west of Sumatra, Indonesia’s northernmost island. With some assumptions, it can be assumed that then the plane flew right at a constant altitude for a very long time in the direction of Antarctica, lying beyond its range. 40. The turning point was a little north and west of Sumatra, Indonesia’s northernmost island. With some assumptions, it can be assumed that then the plane flew right at a constant altitude for a very long time in the direction of Antarctica, lying beyond its range.
After six hours, the Doppler parameter indicates a sharp decrease - five times faster than the normal descent speed. A minute or two after crossing the seventh arc, the plane plunged into the ocean, possibly losing components before the strike. Judging by electronic data, there was no attempt at a controlled landing on water. The plane was supposed to instantly fly into a million pieces. However, no one knew where the fall occurred, and especially why. Also, no one had the slightest physical evidence that the interpretation of satellite data was correct.
Less than a week after the disappearance, The Wall Street Journal published its first satellite communications material stating that the plane most likely remained in the air for hours after it fell silent. Malaysian officials finally admitted that this is true. The Malaysian regime is considered one of the most corrupt in the region, and the publication of satellite communications data showed that the Malaysian authorities in their investigation into the disappearance were secretive, cowardly and unreliable. Researchers from Europe, Australia, and the United States were shocked by the disorder they encountered. Due to the fact that the Malaysians hid the details they knew, the initial sea searches were concentrated in the wrong place, in the South China Sea, and they did not find floating debris. If the Malaysians immediately told the truth, such garbage could be found and used to determine the approximate location of the aircraft; even black boxes could be detected. Ultimately, the underwater search focused on a narrow strip of the ocean, located thousands of kilometers away. But even a narrow strip of the ocean is a very large place. It took two years to find the black boxes of the Air France 447, which crashed into the Atlantic during a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris in 2009, although there they researched knew exactly where to find them. But even a narrow strip of the ocean is a very large place. It took two years to find the black boxes of the Air France 447, which crashed into the Atlantic during a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris in 2009, although there they researched knew exactly where to find them. But even a narrow strip of the ocean is a very large place. It took two years to find the black boxes of the Air France 447, which crashed into the Atlantic during a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris in 2009, although there they researched knew exactly where to find them.
The initial search in surface waters ended in April 2014 after almost two months of futile efforts, and the focus shifted to the depths of the ocean, where it remains today. At first, Blaine Gibson followed these frustrating efforts from afar. He sold his mother's house and moved to the Golden Triangle in northern Laos, where, together with a business partner, he began building a restaurant on the Mekong River. At the same time, he joined the Facebook group dedicated to the disappearance of the MH370, which was filled with both idle speculations and posts containing reasonable discussions about the fate of the aircraft and the whereabouts of the main wreckage.
Although the Malaysians were formally responsible for the entire investigation, they lacked the means and experience to conduct underwater search and recovery operations, and the Australians, like the good Samaritans, took the lead. The Indian Ocean areas indicated by satellite data — about 1900 kilometers southwest of Perth — were so deep and unexplored that, first of all, it was necessary to draw up a sufficiently accurate underwater topographic map to enable the safe towing of special vehicles, side-scan sonars, at a depth of many kilometers under water. The bottom of the ocean in these places is covered with ridges hidden by darkness, where light never penetrated.
A zealous underwater search made Gibson wonder if the wreckage of the plane would ever just be washed ashore. Visiting friends on the coast of Cambodia, he asked if they had come across anything like that - the answer was no. Although the wreckage could not have sailed to Cambodia from the southern Indian Ocean, Gibson wanted to be open to any option until the discovery of the wreckage of the aircraft proved that it was the south of the Indian Ocean that really became his grave.
In March 2015, in Kuala Lumpur, relatives of passengers met on the anniversary of the disappearance of the MH370. Gibson decided to attend without an invitation and without being intimately acquainted with anyone. Since he did not have special knowledge, his visit was skeptical - people did not know how to react to an occasional amateur. The event was held in an open area in a shopping center, a typical meeting place in Kuala Lumpur. The aim was to express general grief, as well as to continue pressure on the Malaysian government in order to get any explanation. Hundreds of people attended, many came from China. Silent music sounded from the stage, in the background hung a large poster depicting the silhouette of a Boeing 777, as well as the words “ where ”, “ who ”, “ why ”, “when ”,“ whom ”,“ how ”, and also“ impossible ”,“ unprecedented ”,“ without a trace ”and“ helpless ”. The main speaker was a young Malaysian woman named Grace Subatirai Nathan, whose mother was on board. Nathan is a criminal lawyer specializing in capital punishment cases, which Malaysia suffers from due to draconian laws. She became the most successful representative of the immediate family of the victims. Stepping on the stage in a T-shirt not in size, on which a drawing of MH370 was printed with the appeal “ Look", She told about her mother, about the deep love she had for her, and about the difficulties she faced after her disappearance. Sometimes she sobbed quietly, like some of the audience, including Gibson. After her speech, he went up to her and asked if she would accept a hug from a stranger. She hugged him, and over time they became friends.
Leaving the mourning event, Gibson decided to help, addressing the gap that he discovered - the lack of coastal searches for floating debris. It will be his niche. He will become a beach stroller looking for the debris of the MH370 on the coasts. Official researchers, mainly Australians and Malaysians, have actively invested in underwater searches. They would have laughed at Gibson’s ambitions, just as they would have laughed at the prospect that Gibson would indeed find wreckage on the beaches hundreds of kilometers from each other.
Left: Malaysian lawyer and activist Grace Subatirai Nathan, whose mother was on board the MH370. Right: Blaine Gibson, an American who went looking for the wreckage of an airplane. Photo by: William Langewiesche
2. Coastal tramp
3. Goldmine
4. Conspiracies
5. Possible scenario
6. Captain
7. Truth
1. The disappearance
On a quiet moonlit night on March 8, 2014, a Boeing 777-200ER operated by Malaysia Airlines flew out of Kuala Lumpur at 0:42 and turned towards Beijing, rising to the intended train level 350, that is, to an altitude of 10,650 meters. Malaysia Airlines designation is MH. Flight number is 370. The aircraft was controlled by Farik Hamid, the co-pilot, he was 27 years old. This was his last training flight, after which he was waiting for the completion of certification. Farik’s actions were led by an aircraft commander, a man named Zahari Ahmad Shah, who at 53 was one of the oldest captains on Malaysia Airlines. According to Malaysian customs, his name was simply Zachary. He was married and had three adult children. He lived in a closed cottage village. Had two houses. In the first house, he had a flight simulator, Microsoft Flight Simulator, installed. He regularly flew on it and often wrote on online forums about his hobby. Farik was respectful to Zachary, but he did not abuse his power.
In the cabin were 10 cabin crew, all Malaysians. They had to take care of 227 passengers, including five children. Most of the passengers were Chinese; of the remaining 38, they were Malaysians, while the rest (in descending order) were citizens of Indonesia, Australia, India, France, the USA, Iran, Ukraine, Canada, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Russia and Taiwan.
That night, Captain Zachary worked with the radio while co-pilot Farik was flying the plane. Everything went as usual, but Zachary's programs were a bit strange. At 1:01, he reported on the radio that they had leveled off at an altitude of 35,000 feet - an unnecessary message in the area with radar surveillance, where it is customary to report a departure from a height, rather than its achievement. At 1:08 a flight crossed the coastline of Malaysia and headed across the South China Sea towards Vietnam. Zachary once again reported an aircraft height of 35,000 feet.
Eleven minutes later, when the plane approached a checkpoint near the area of responsibility of the Vietnamese air traffic control service, the Kuala Lumpur Center dispatcher sent a message: “Malaysian is three-seven-zero, contact Ho Chi Minh one-two-zero-point-nine. Goodnight". Zachary replied: “Good night. Malaysian three-seven-zero. " He did not repeat the frequency as it should, but otherwise the message sounded normal. This was the last thing the world heard from the MH370. The pilots did not contact Ho Chi Minh and did not respond to any of the subsequent attempts to call them.
A simple radar, known as the “primary radar,” detects objects by sending radio signals and receiving their reflections as if they were an echo. Air traffic control systems, or air traffic control, use the so-called "secondary radar." He relies on the active transponder installed on each aircraft, or the transponder, which sends more detailed information, such as the side number and height of the aircraft. Five seconds after the MH370 entered the airspace of Vietnam, its transponder icon disappeared from the screens of the Malaysian dispatch service, and after 37 seconds the aircraft became invisible to the secondary radar. The time was 1:21, 39 minutes passed after take-off. The controller in Kuala Lumpur was occupied by other sides located in a different part of the screen, and simply did not notice the disappearance. When after some time he discovered the loss,
Meanwhile, the Vietnamese air traffic controllers saw the MH370 enter their airspace and then disappear from the radar. Obviously, they misunderstood the formal agreement, according to which Ho Chi Minh should immediately notify Kuala Lumpur if the incoming plane does not communicate for more than five minutes. They tried to reconnect with the aircraft, but to no avail. By the time they picked up the phone to report the situation to Kuala Lumpur, 18 minutes had passed since the disappearance of the MH370 from the radar screens. This was followed by an outstanding manifestation of bewilderment and incompetence - according to the rules, the Kuala Lumpur Aviation Rescue Service Coordination Center should be notified within an hour after the disappearance, but by 2:30 this still had not been done. Four more hours passed before at 6:
The riddle surrounding the MH370 has been the subject of ongoing investigation and a source of feverish speculation.
By this time, the plane was supposed to land in Beijing. The efforts to find him were initially concentrated in the South China Sea, between Malaysia and Vietnam. These were international operations of 34 ships and 28 aircraft from seven different countries, but the MH370 was not there. Within a few days, the primary radar records extracted from the air traffic control computers and partially confirmed by the secret data of the Malaysian air force showed that as soon as the MH370 disappeared from the secondary radar, it turned sharply south-west, flew back through the Malay Peninsula and began to roll near Penang Island. From there, he flew northwest, up the Strait of Malacca and further through the Andaman Sea, where he disappeared outside the radar range. This part of the journey took more than an hour - and she suggested that the plane was not hijacked. It also meant that the matter was not in the accident and not in the suicide of the pilot that had been encountered before. From the very beginning, the MH370 led researchers in an unknown direction.
The riddle surrounding the MH370 has been the subject of ongoing investigation and a source of feverish speculation. Many families on four continents have experienced a devastating sense of loss. The idea that a complex machine equipped with modern technology and redundant communications may simply disappear seems absurd. It is difficult to delete a message without a trace, and it is completely impossible to disappear from the network, even if the attempt is deliberate. A plane like the Boeing 777 should be available for communication at any time, and its disappearance has given rise to many theories. Many of them are absurd, but all of them have arisen due to the fact that in our century a civilian plane can not just take the abyss.
One nevertheless succeeded, and after more than five years his exact whereabouts remained unknown. Nevertheless, now much has become clearer about the disappearance of the MH370, and today it is possible to recreate some of the events that happened that night. Sound recordings from the cockpit and data from the flight recorders will probably never be restored - however, what we need to know is unlikely to be obtained from the black boxes. Instead, you have to look for answers in Malaysia.
2. Coastal Tramp
That evening, when the plane disappeared, a middle-aged American named Blaine Gibson was sitting in his late mother’s house in Carmel, California, sorting out her affairs and getting ready to sell her property. He heard news of an MH370 flight on CNN.
By education, Gibson, whom I recently met in Kuala Lumpur, is a lawyer. He lived in Seattle for over 35 years, but now spends little time there. His father, who died decades ago, was a veteran of World War I - he survived attacks of mustard gas in the trenches, was awarded the Silver Star for valor and returned to the service of the Chief Justice of California, having spent more than 24 years in this post. His mother was a graduate of Stanford Law School and an ardent environmentalist.
Blaine Gibson was an only child. His mother loved to travel the world, and she often took him with her, so at the age of seven he decided that the purpose of his life would be to visit every country in the world at least once. In the end, it came up against the definition of “visit” and “country”, but he remained true to the idea, giving up the chances of a stable career and having a very modest inheritance. In his own words, along the way he indulged in some well-known riddles, such as the end of the Mayan civilization in the jungles of Guatemala and Belize, the explosion of the Tunguska meteorite in Eastern Siberia and the location of the Ark of the Covenant in the mountains of Ethiopia. He printed his business cards “ Adventurer. Researcher. Striving for the truth", And began to wear a felt hat, like Indiana Jones. When it became known about the disappearance of MH370, Gibson's close attention to the incident was predetermined.
Despite the reflex refutations of Malaysian officials and the frank confusion in the reports of the Malaysian Air Force, the truth about the strange trajectory of the aircraft quickly revealed. It turned out that the MH370 continued to periodically communicate with the Indian Ocean geostationary satellite, operated by the British satellite communications company Inmarsat, for six hours after the disappearance of the aircraft from the secondary radar. This meant that there was no sudden catastrophe on the plane. Presumably, during these six hours he flew at cruising speed at high altitude. Communication sessions with Inmarsat, some of which were just confirmation of the connection, were short system connections - in fact, no more than an electronic whisper. The system for the transmission of the main content - entertainment for passengers, messages for pilots, automatic reports on technical condition - was apparently turned off. There were a total of seven connections: two were automatically initiated by the aircraft, and five others by the Inmarsat ground station. There were also two satellite calls; they remained unanswered, but eventually provided additional data. Two of the parameters were associated with most of these compounds, which Inmarsat recently began fixing and saving.
The first and more accurate of the parameters is known as burst-timing offset, let's call it “distance parameter” for simplicity. This is a measure of the transmission time to and from the aircraft, that is, a measure of the distance from the aircraft to the satellite. This parameter defines not one specific location, but all equally distant places - almost a circle of possible points. Given the range limits of the MH370, some parts of these circles become arcs. The most important arc - the seventh and the last - is determined by the last satellite connection, which is complexly associated with the depletion of fuel reserves and engine failure. The seventh arc extends from Central Asia in the north to Antarctica in the south, and the MH370 crossed it at 8:19 am Kuala Lumpur time.
Judging by electronic data, there was no attempt at a controlled landing on water. The plane was supposed to instantly fly into a million pieces.
Analysis of satellite data makes it possible to assert with confidence that the plane turned south. We know this from the second parameter registered by Inmarsat - burst-frequency offset. For simplicity, we will call it the "Doppler parameter", because the main thing that it includes is the measure of radio frequency Doppler shifts associated with high-speed motion relative to the position of the satellite, which is a natural part of satellite communications for aircraft in flight. For the satellite communications to function successfully, Doppler shifts must be predicted and compensated by on-board systems. This compensation is not entirely ideal, because satellites - especially as they age - do not transmit signals exactly as it was programmed in airplanes. Their orbits may deviate slightly, they also depend on temperature, and these imperfections leave distinct traces. Although Doppler shift values had never been used to determine an airplane's location before, Inmarsat technicians in London were able to notice a significant distortion, suggesting a southward turn at 2:40. The turning point was a little north and west of Sumatra, Indonesia’s northernmost island. With some assumptions, it can be assumed that then the plane flew right at a constant altitude for a very long time in the direction of Antarctica, lying beyond its range. 40. The turning point was a little north and west of Sumatra, Indonesia’s northernmost island. With some assumptions, it can be assumed that then the plane flew right at a constant altitude for a very long time in the direction of Antarctica, lying beyond its range. 40. The turning point was a little north and west of Sumatra, Indonesia’s northernmost island. With some assumptions, it can be assumed that then the plane flew right at a constant altitude for a very long time in the direction of Antarctica, lying beyond its range.
After six hours, the Doppler parameter indicates a sharp decrease - five times faster than the normal descent speed. A minute or two after crossing the seventh arc, the plane plunged into the ocean, possibly losing components before the strike. Judging by electronic data, there was no attempt at a controlled landing on water. The plane was supposed to instantly fly into a million pieces. However, no one knew where the fall occurred, and especially why. Also, no one had the slightest physical evidence that the interpretation of satellite data was correct.
Less than a week after the disappearance, The Wall Street Journal published its first satellite communications material stating that the plane most likely remained in the air for hours after it fell silent. Malaysian officials finally admitted that this is true. The Malaysian regime is considered one of the most corrupt in the region, and the publication of satellite communications data showed that the Malaysian authorities in their investigation into the disappearance were secretive, cowardly and unreliable. Researchers from Europe, Australia, and the United States were shocked by the disorder they encountered. Due to the fact that the Malaysians hid the details they knew, the initial sea searches were concentrated in the wrong place, in the South China Sea, and they did not find floating debris. If the Malaysians immediately told the truth, such garbage could be found and used to determine the approximate location of the aircraft; even black boxes could be detected. Ultimately, the underwater search focused on a narrow strip of the ocean, located thousands of kilometers away. But even a narrow strip of the ocean is a very large place. It took two years to find the black boxes of the Air France 447, which crashed into the Atlantic during a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris in 2009, although there they researched knew exactly where to find them. But even a narrow strip of the ocean is a very large place. It took two years to find the black boxes of the Air France 447, which crashed into the Atlantic during a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris in 2009, although there they researched knew exactly where to find them. But even a narrow strip of the ocean is a very large place. It took two years to find the black boxes of the Air France 447, which crashed into the Atlantic during a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris in 2009, although there they researched knew exactly where to find them.
The initial search in surface waters ended in April 2014 after almost two months of futile efforts, and the focus shifted to the depths of the ocean, where it remains today. At first, Blaine Gibson followed these frustrating efforts from afar. He sold his mother's house and moved to the Golden Triangle in northern Laos, where, together with a business partner, he began building a restaurant on the Mekong River. At the same time, he joined the Facebook group dedicated to the disappearance of the MH370, which was filled with both idle speculations and posts containing reasonable discussions about the fate of the aircraft and the whereabouts of the main wreckage.
Although the Malaysians were formally responsible for the entire investigation, they lacked the means and experience to conduct underwater search and recovery operations, and the Australians, like the good Samaritans, took the lead. The Indian Ocean areas indicated by satellite data — about 1900 kilometers southwest of Perth — were so deep and unexplored that, first of all, it was necessary to draw up a sufficiently accurate underwater topographic map to enable the safe towing of special vehicles, side-scan sonars, at a depth of many kilometers under water. The bottom of the ocean in these places is covered with ridges hidden by darkness, where light never penetrated.
A zealous underwater search made Gibson wonder if the wreckage of the plane would ever just be washed ashore. Visiting friends on the coast of Cambodia, he asked if they had come across anything like that - the answer was no. Although the wreckage could not have sailed to Cambodia from the southern Indian Ocean, Gibson wanted to be open to any option until the discovery of the wreckage of the aircraft proved that it was the south of the Indian Ocean that really became his grave.
In March 2015, in Kuala Lumpur, relatives of passengers met on the anniversary of the disappearance of the MH370. Gibson decided to attend without an invitation and without being intimately acquainted with anyone. Since he did not have special knowledge, his visit was skeptical - people did not know how to react to an occasional amateur. The event was held in an open area in a shopping center, a typical meeting place in Kuala Lumpur. The aim was to express general grief, as well as to continue pressure on the Malaysian government in order to get any explanation. Hundreds of people attended, many came from China. Silent music sounded from the stage, in the background hung a large poster depicting the silhouette of a Boeing 777, as well as the words “ where ”, “ who ”, “ why ”, “when ”,“ whom ”,“ how ”, and also“ impossible ”,“ unprecedented ”,“ without a trace ”and“ helpless ”. The main speaker was a young Malaysian woman named Grace Subatirai Nathan, whose mother was on board. Nathan is a criminal lawyer specializing in capital punishment cases, which Malaysia suffers from due to draconian laws. She became the most successful representative of the immediate family of the victims. Stepping on the stage in a T-shirt not in size, on which a drawing of MH370 was printed with the appeal “ Look", She told about her mother, about the deep love she had for her, and about the difficulties she faced after her disappearance. Sometimes she sobbed quietly, like some of the audience, including Gibson. After her speech, he went up to her and asked if she would accept a hug from a stranger. She hugged him, and over time they became friends.
Leaving the mourning event, Gibson decided to help, addressing the gap that he discovered - the lack of coastal searches for floating debris. It will be his niche. He will become a beach stroller looking for the debris of the MH370 on the coasts. Official researchers, mainly Australians and Malaysians, have actively invested in underwater searches. They would have laughed at Gibson’s ambitions, just as they would have laughed at the prospect that Gibson would indeed find wreckage on the beaches hundreds of kilometers from each other.
Left: Malaysian lawyer and activist Grace Subatirai Nathan, whose mother was on board the MH370. Right: Blaine Gibson, an American who went looking for the wreckage of an airplane. Photo by: William Langewiesche
Continued: What really happened to the disappeared Malaysian Boeing (part 2/3)
End: What really happened to the disappeared Malaysian Boeing (part 3/3)
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