"Planes go up. Planes go down. What planes don't do is vanish off the face of the earth." The recently released Netflix docu-series on the mystery of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 which disappeared nine years ago tries to unravel the "biggest mystery" in aviation history. The documentary includes interviews of Malaysian officials, family members of passengers on board, journalists and conspiracy theorists. The conspiracy theorists take center-stage in the series as their narrative takes precedence over the official narrative.
On March 8, 2014 Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 took off from Kuala Lumpur at 12:40 am and was headed to Beijing with 227 passengers and 12 crew members on board. Less than half an hour later, the flight lost contact with the ground staff, all without a trace, as it was headed over to the South China sea. The last thing heard from the flight was the captain saying "Good night Malaysian 370" as the plane left Malaysian airspace to enter Vietnamese airspace.
The flight never got in touch with the Vietnam air traffic control. It simply went off the radar without a mayday call, a mystery that baffled everyone. Did it crash? Was it hijacked? Was it shot down?
Over four years after the mysterious disappearance of the flight, Malaysian investigators released a final report which said the "unlawful interference of a third party" could not be ruled out. The report concluded that the investigators could not determine the real cause of the disappearance of MH370.
The Netflix docu-series delves into three top conspiracy theories, misinformation, and leads that were left unanswered by Malaysian officials. Here is a look at the key points mentioned in the documentary.
Ringing phones
What Netflix docu-series shows
The first episode claims that family members of the passengers were dialing their phones which continued to ring. "Suddenly there was a daughter of a passenger running towards us. We could see her phone was showing an incoming call. It was displaying 'Papa'," Jiang Hui, whose mother was on the fateful flight, said in the documentary.
By the time the woman could receive the phone call, it got disconnected. Family members approached Malaysian officials with this lead, but no investigation was launched citing the "lack of technology".
What was reported
While the ringing phones were widely considered evidence that the flight had not crashed, experts debunked the assumption. CNN quoted Jeff Kagan, a technology industry analyst, who said that "no conclusions could be reached concerning the ringing phones." Kagan explained that when a phone rings, it first connects with the network, trying to locate the receiver's phone. However, if the phone is not located after a few rings, the phone disconnects, he said while explaining the situation then.
“Just because you’re getting ringing, just because the signs that we see on these cell phones, that’s no proof that there’s any – that’s just the way the networks work,” CNN quoted him as saying.
The New York Times had reported that no phone calls or social media postings were made by any of the passengers on the MH370 flight after it disappeared.
"There has been no evidence of any number they’re trying to contact, but anyway they are still checking and there are millions of records for them to process,” the report quoted Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, the chief executive of Malaysia Airlines, as saying.
Conspiracy theories
What Netflix docu-series shows
The documentary highlights several unconfirmed conspiracy theories such as Russia downing the plane to distract media attention from military action in Crimea. Conspiracy theorists also argued that this could be a US ploy and claimed that the plane was carrying 2.5 tons of electronics in cargo under an escort without being scanned to China to be used as raw materials in surveillance technology. The US was opposed to this and hence intercepted the flight over South China sea
What was reported
In March 2014, as days passed without any tangible explanation of what happened to the plane, the void was filled by theories. Groups cropped up online where people with certain expertise tried to piece together the puzzle. One such group was The Independent. It had aviation journalists, experts, and tech-savvy people.
"I've done a lot of work on information systems and handling lots of data and that's important on this analysis. There is huge amount of data to get through and filter out the needle in the haystack," BBC quoted Richard Godfrey, a founding member of The Independent group. He has concluded that the flight crashed into the Indian Ocean 2,000 km west of Perth in Australia.
Pilot's plot
What Netflix docu-series shows
When all explanations failed, Zaharie Ahmed Shah, captain of the flight, was projected as the culprit since he was in control of the plane and could put it off the radar and take a u-turn. Speculations turned into allegations after a simulation system was recovered from his home and it was found during the investigation that Shah had actually rehearsed the route on the system a month before the disappearance of the flight. His behaviour and psychology were also questioned. The whole thing was projected as a "suicide-mass murder" plot.
However, the documentary has an interview with a French investigative journalist who rubbishes such allegations. "There was a very hostile and consistent campaign related to his private life, mental health. There were also accusations that he may have had political motivations," says Florence De Changy, the French journalist. She later spoke to Shah's sister and people who knew him to conclude that Shah wasn't the criminal he was being portrayed as. This was also corroborated by his former colleagues.
What was reported
Shah became a suspect because the Malaysian authorities confirmed that the plane's tracking devices were switched off in the cockpit. The BBC reported that the officials believed the flight's communications systems were deliberately disabled. The 53-year-old Shah had a flying experience of 18,000 hours. He lived with his wife and three children. His wife reportedly left him a night before the disappearance of the plane.
BBC reported that his family was among 100 people who were interviewed as part of the investigation to know more about the people on board. However, "no information of significance" was found as per the authorities.