What was the most likely cause of MH370 disappearance?

Possible causes of the aircraft's disappearance That the signals had likely been switched off from inside the aircraft suggested suicide by one of the crew, but nothing obviously suspicious was found in the behaviour of the captain, the first officer, or the cabin crew immediately prior to the flight.



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Pilot-assisted suicide A common theory is that Captain Shah locked the first officer out of the flight deck. He switched off the communications systems that were designed to keep MH370 in touch with air-traffic controllers; donned an oxygen mask; and depressurised the aircraft.

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Despite extensive search operations, the MH370 was never found. Some claims about the MH370 debris washing ashore did pop up now and then, but there was never any conclusive evidence or claims that the debris actually was of MH370. No dead bodies were found either and neither was the plane's black box.

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In 2014 all the families of passengers and crew on board MH370 were offered interim payments of US$50,000, non-conditional and regardless of any legal action, which some accepted.

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The first piece of debris was found on Reunion Island on July 29, 2015, by Johny Begue.

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Not only did this confirm the plane was not intact, but modelling of ocean currents concluded that MH370 crashed in the southern Indian Ocean near Western Australia, and ocean currents then transported debris to Africa a year later.

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The piece of debris was found by the fisherman named Tataly in 2017, after it washed up on the Madagascar shore in 2017 in the wake of tropical storm Fernando. He kept the landing gear door at his home for five years and wasn't aware of its significance. The fisherman's wife was using the door as a washing board.

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While it has been established beyond doubt that the plane crashed into the ocean, with no survivors, the families of the dead understandably refuse to accept this conclusion.

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Friends of Zaharie Ahmad Shah, who was the captain of MH370, told The Atlantic that the 53-year-old pilot was depressed and lonely, engaged in one-sided flirting with young women on Facebook, and spent much of his non-flying time pacing empty rooms inside his home.

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Despite limited findings, including 41 confirmed debris items, the larger aircraft and its passengers remain missing, leaving much of the MH370 mystery still unresolved.

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In a dramatic development, Ocean Infinity has committed to finding MH370 with a new search in early 2023 or 2024.

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Several other planes have disappeared in the region including five US bombers that vanished in 1945, but in spite of massive air and sea searches, no trace of the bodies or aircraft was ever found. In 2009 a flight from Rio De Janeiro to Paris crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, killing 228 passengers and crew.

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In the case of MH370, the authorities believe that the primary transponder was turned off, and the backup didn't activate. In any case, once an aircraft is more than 240km (150 miles) out to sea, radar coverage fades and air crew keep in touch with air traffic control and other aircraft using high-frequency radio.

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Noble said the two men's identities were confirmed by Iranian authorities as Seyed Mohammed Reza Delavar, aged 29 and Pouria Nourmohammadi, aged 18. The two men used the Austrian and Italian passports that were recorded in INTERPOL's Stolen and Lost Travel Documents (SLTD) database to board China-bound flight MH 370.

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Malaysian police identified the captain as the prime suspect if human intervention was the cause of the disappearance, after clearing all others on the flight of suspicion over possible motives.

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MH370 Pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah. While it seems incriminating, a member of the Independent Group - a watchdog group of aviation experts dedicated to the MH370 case - said it wasn't a “smoking gun”.

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