Malaysian Airlines Crash- More Unanswered Questions than Answered Ones

The declaration by the Malaysian Government about the crash of the

Flight MH370 into the Indian Ocean raises more questions than it answers. For almost two weeks there have been much vacillation by the Malaysian authorities and several contrasting scenarios were projected by them as also analysts from across the globe. From a possible crash to a possible hijack to suicide by pilots and even the possibility of terror groups using the hijacked plane for a possible 9/11 kind of an operation in any of the major Asian cities were mooted.

The Many Theories Floating Around....

In between, former Assistant Secretary of State of US Strobe Talbott came up with a chilling statement that the probable route taken by the plane after deviating from the flight path suggests that the hijackers or the pilots were on a 9/11 kind of a mission in India. The possibility of something like that cannot be completely ruled out given the massive turmoil in South Asia and the threat that India faces from radical Islamic terror groups. Also this theory cannot be altogether trashed because of the massive web of network that Al Qaeda and its affiliates have created across the world including Asia. Then there was also the possibility of the involvement of the ethnic Muslim Uighurs of China from the restive Xingxiang province where China has been waging a protracted battle to crush Islamic militancy. The plane incidentally contained a majority of Chinese passengers and also one Uighur Chinese on whom too, the needle of suspicion have moved.

Even as the world waited with anxiety and the search & rescue missions continued, Israel was busy preparing itself for a possible 9/11 kind of attack on her soil by the untraced plane. The worsening situation in Middle East and the rabid hatred that many of the terror groups have towards Israel as well as past precedence made Israel prepare for the worst.

Strangely, this was not the first vanishing act by a plane

Yet amidst all this, the aircraft remained untraced. Reports state that this was not the first time that an aircraft had literally vanished into thin air. Since 1945, more than 80 such incidents have taken place where no trace could be found of airborne aircrafts. But things are no more now the way they were even a few decades back. Surveillance technologies have improved majorly. Satellites can track every moving object in air. Apart from civilian radars, military radars of almost every country worth a name keep a constant check on moving objects in its air zone.

Is something being suppressed?

This apart, the warships keep an eye on movement of objects in the maritime zones of nations. It is extremely improbable that no one had any inkling about the craft which officially is untraceable. The probability is very high at least someone or some authority among all involved in the search mission or been involved in the tracking of the plane, is not revealing the truth. Suppression of such facts which can create panic and mayhem is a norm or rather a protocol among all major nations. And thus, possibility is extremely high that much more is known about the missing flight and its eventual fate than is being revealed to the public at large. One cannot though blame any of the authorities for the same.

The Unanswered Questions

While the Malaysian authorities declared that the aircraft had crashed into Indian Ocean, what was not answered was the question as to why and how it deviated so much from its stated path over the South China Sea enroute to Beijing. And if it had deviated so much and had literally flown into Indian Ocean before crashing, what made the craft fly into Indian Ocean? Incidentally Malaysia lies literally in between Indian Ocean and South China Sea and thus for the aircraft to move towards Indian Ocean from the South China Sea region, it would surely have crossed over Malaysian Air Defence Identification Zone. And if it had done so, is it possible that Malaysian Air Force or the Singaporean Air Force have not noticed it?

The question then that arises is that whether the pilot of the plane then was communicating with the traffic controller or not. And if not, then did they just allow an unidentified craft to flyover without any objection? The possibility of this is highly improbable thereby raising further questions as to what is essentially is being not told to the world at large. The Malaysian Authorities have though confirmed that its military radars had contacted the flight around one and a half hours after its departure, at 320 km North West of Penang province. This itself is way beyond the scheduled route. But what the Malaysian authorities did not reveal is whether they let that wayward plane go around or did something with it.

Was it a Suicide by Pilots?

In between several issues were raised relating to the background of the pilots, some missing files from their home computers as well as the possibility of them being involved in some wrong doing. The Malaysian authorities have also stated that the transponder of the plane was switched off from inside and that the craft flew at a low altitude to avoid radar detection. In that case, the question that remains unanswered is whether it was a suicide or not. If the craft was indeed flying low to avoid radar detection, what was the motive for the same?

A person on a suicide mission would not think much about whether transponders are switched off or not unless of course his mission is to commit suicide along with destroying a premeditated target and perhaps in that case one can explain the reason for switching off the transponders to avoid detection before reaching the target. Yet, in case of flying low over the ocean, it is impossible to fathom that there have been no visual contact of the craft by any of the commercial freight ships plying in the region or that of the Malaysian, Indonesian or Singaporean Navy or even the Australian Navy. Incidentally both the Singaporean Navy and Australian Navy are highly sophisticated.

Crash on its Own is Ruled Out

The possibility of a midair disintegration of the Boeing 777-200 ER can now be ruled out. The reason being, that if it had disintegrated on its own as was proposed as a theory initially, it would not have had its debris falling into Indian Ocean on its own since the flight path was over South China Sea, which is several hundred kilometres away and also have landmass in between. Boeing 777-200 ER otherwise too is an extremely versatile craft which has been in service for almost two decades now and with more than 1100 units of the same in operation world over with merely 10 accidents recorded so far, it can be stated with impunity that it has a fairly safe track record. Even in case of a crash, the pilots would have sent an SOS message which was not the case in this case since herein the transponders were switched off as is being suspected.

The Unspoken Possibility- Was It Shot Down?

Therefore, even though the efforts have shifted towards the recovery of the debris and rightly so and even though it is like searching like a needle in a haystack, fact of the matter remains that the Malaysian authorities have still not stated the reason for them to believe that the plane had indeed crashed into Indian Ocean unless of course they are privy to some more information which they are not sharing with others. Was the craft with its transponders switched off, on a 9/11 kind of mission? Did it turn towards Indian Ocean for that? Was the destination Australia or even Malaysia? Is there a possibility that the craft have been shot down when it was intruding back into the airspace without any response? Is it that for fear of the public furore that it would raise, whichever state in the region did so, is remaining tight lipped? Well, that is a million dollar question whose answer perhaps would never e revealed by the countries involved, even if they remain privy to that information. That is perhaps an unstated protocol among all states and perhaps anyone would have done so given the fear about the next 9/11 lurking all the time. The world would soon get busy with other mundane things and perhaps with time to come this would merely be a forgotten affair except for the bereaved families. Rest would perhaps get hushed up or mired in litigations. The truth however would perhaps remain untold and unknown, hidden maybe in secret files.