Malaysia Airlines UPDATE Leaning Towards Fire Theory

Malaysia Airlines UPDATE Leaning Towards Fire Theory

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Source: LATimes.com

As the search continues for Malaysia Airlines flight 370, two theories prevailed as the most realistic ideas of what occurred. The two theories are an onboard fire or a hijacking. Flight 370 made a sharp turn westward before disappearing, but this is old news. From a military source today, we have learned that the flight dropped its altitude to 12,000 feet, about 4 thousand meters. 

This is a crucial piece of information because it opens the investigation to many more reasonable leads. Was there a fire in the cockpit? Was it flying so low to allow the passengers to breath easily because of decompression onboard? Was it a U-turn? Experienced pilots mentioned that it sounds like the standard procedure for when there is a fire in the cockpit. While trying to navigate the plane towards Kato Bharu airport for an emergency landing, did the passengers loose consciousness making them unable to communicate? Kato Bharu fishermen that were out night fishing the night Flight 370 disappeared, and they said that they saw a plane flying unusually low. Those fishermen said that they never seen a plane flying so low. 

The pilots protocol in this type of situation would be aviate, navigate, then communicate.   A fire in the cockpit seems a lot more logical now then ever before. Investigators can now research these options as more viable answers to the ultimate question: where is flight 370? However there is still suspicious evidence in the investigation. The pilot communicating, "All right, goodnight." before the plane was reprogrammed to make the westward turn is still in question. 

The Australians, French, and Chinese satellites all seemed to have found debris that seem to be linked to flight 370 in the southern Indian Ocean. However there is a cyclone headed towards the search area for flight 370! Cyclone Gillian is currently "well north of the search area," said Gillian Moheny via Good Morning America. Cyclones would likely not affect the search area of the plane and crash site according to David Mearns, a search and recovery expert. Crews will All the evidence found thus far is pointing towards a fire in the cock pit more than any other theories.