The mystery of the missing Boeing: new details

Now we can say with accuracy that all specialists, military and aviation researchers literally knocked down in search of the 777 Boeing, who disappeared more than two weeks ago. All speculation that could happen to him, but that scares most of all, is the silence. According to Israeli lawyer, former pilot and chief investigator of the Ministry of Transport of Israel, Yitzhak Raz, it’s surprising that we have already heard speeches and opinions of everyone except those who are really able to shed light on this mysterious incident, says Yitzhak Raz.

The Prime Minister of Malaysia, the Minister of Transport and Aviation, the Airline Chief Director, the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and the Air Force, and Boeing representatives spoke to the world in the media, but the opinion of the investigation itself and the people directly involved in it has not yet been officially presented anywhere. According to Mr. Raza, this suggests that important details and circumstances of the disappearance of the 370 flight are vainly hidden from the public.

However, today some more details were revealed. As it was reported earlier, a flight simulator was found in the apartment of the main pilot, captain Zaari Ahmad Shah. According to Yitzhak Raz, finding such expensive and complex equipment in the pilot's house has no reasonable excuse. The fact is that this simulator is widely used in flight schools, and it is designed to study all the airlines in the world. Its program includes airlines of almost all the airspaces of the world, with the goal of pilots studying them, but pilots of all airlines already undergo such training in special schools. The question remains, for what purpose the captain of the Boeing used this simulator at home.

Further, this event received an unexpected turn. In the apartment of the captain of the liner, the security forces of Malaysia, together with the FBI agents, a search was conducted and the simulator's hard disk was hacked by specialists to trace the details of its latest use. To the surprise of the experts, as was reported today by CNN, the information on the disk was erased shortly before Zaari set off for the flight. Thus, the question of exactly on which routes he trained lately has remained unanswered and it is quite possible that Zaari was working on the route of the hijacking. Owing to this information, many experts have concluded that the chances of Zaari being involved in the hijacking have increased significantly.

The families of the missing passengers have already filed a complaint with the Malaysian government for concealing information, but the complaint has remained without comment. The Australian Air Force today reported that it had "combed" all border areas and waters, but did not even find anything that could be similar to the wreckage of the airliner. According to CNN, no one doubts that the sudden change of course towards the Malaya Peninsula, in the Indian Ocean, was a deliberate action either by the captain of the airliner or by someone else who knows how to fly the plane. The Thai military said its radar detected the plane as it flew over the Strait of Malacca and this was also confirmed by the Malaysian military. Thus, it becomes clear that the plane went towards the Indian Ocean, where it disappeared after 6 hours of flight. It is possible that he managed to make an emergency landing on one of the islands, but this version is unlikely.

However, most experts are inclined to believe that the aircraft has landed and is currently on the ground. This is confirmed by several facts. Relatives of the passengers, for almost a week, claimed that their relatives' mobile phones continued to transmit a reception signal, which indicates that they did not touch the water. According to other information, on the aircraft of this type sensors are installed that emit a signal through satellite communications, but they are not intended to determine the location of the liner, but only to indicate what position it is under, in the air or on land. For several days, the sensor transmitted a signal of being on the ground. Thus, the search area at the moment almost all switched to land.

On the plane were passengers, citizens of almost all large states, with the exception of Russia and Ukraine, as reported by CNN. According to experts of the Australian Navy, even if the Boeing fell into the ocean, it is now at a very great depth. For example, the depth of the Bay of Bengal comes to 7,000 meters. The 447 flight, which fell into the Atlantic Ocean in the 2009 year, was found at a depth of 12,000 meters using a deep-water drone submarine and its search lasted more than two years.

Today it became known that Russia, the United States and China, removed their satellites from the routes and sent them to the areas of possible location of the 370 flight. The disappearance of Boeing 777 even overshadowed the crisis in Ukraine and forced both sides of the confrontation, the United States and Russia, to cooperate. The United States has removed several powerful UAVs stationed in Afghanistan from duty and sent it in search of the airliner. Some countries to which requests were sent to some passengers have not yet provided this information.

As the Israeli agency Debka reported today, several more prospects for the possible disappearance of the plane are being considered. The investigation is considering the possibility that there was some cargo on board that was being transported and that was intended for unloading and for this purpose the plane changed course. The agency also reports that the version of the cargo does not exclude the possibility that it was the cargo on board the Boeing that became the target of the theft. At this stage, the investigation is reconstructing the entire chain of events in order to determine what exactly was transported on this flight. This version also raises the question of the fate of the passengers, while almost everyone has already agreed with certainty that the plane is on the ground. Also, the agency’s report states that countries such as Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are potential search sites, as there are a large number of airstrips on their territory, dating back to the times of the USSR and many of these zones are still were not made public because they were used by the military. Also, a version is being worked out that potential hijackers entered the plane not through the airport terminal, but at the time of loading luggage, and it is possible that the purpose of hijacking the plane was to commit a terrorist act with its help, as I already wrote in the previous article. I also do not rule out the possibility that the passengers are alive and could possibly be used as “human shields.” It is possible that the Boeing will be used for terrorist purposes, but with hundreds of passengers on board, it will be much more difficult to make a decision to eliminate them.

According to Robert Bowman, a military pilot, a Vietnam war veteran and a US air defense expert who took part in the investigation of the September 9 attacks on September 9, after these attacks, internationally, international regulations on how to deal with such cases. At that moment, when the aircraft departs or changes course, radio communication is lost with it, or it ceases to give signals of its location, in one of three options, air defense fighters of any state should be raised into the air. In the case of flight 11, all three scenarios occurred at once, but nothing was done. The question arises, did the Malaysian authorities adhere to these rules?

And in conclusion, as it was published today by the British agency Express, after thorough checks of the passenger list by the Malaysian authorities, together with the FBI, it was discovered that there were 20 passengers, employees of one company, on board. According to the agency, they were all employees of the American firm Freescale Semiconductor, which develops and manufactures electronics and radars for the US Department of Defense. Following this information, there were reports in the press that either these employees were the purpose of hijacking the flight, or some of them took part in its capture, because the liner managed to go almost unnoticed to pass through the airspace of about five states, bypassing almost all systems radar, both military and civilian. The press service of this company has not yet commented on the message, but this version is now being actively worked out and the question remains, how will the stolen aircraft be used?

My opinion remains unchanged. The aircraft most likely landed and was hidden in a hangar, and at the moment it is working to refuel and load either explosives or, worse, non-conventional means. In the near future, we will not know anything about him, and news should be expected from one to two months. I think ground searches will bring more results than searches on water.

Author: Simon Tsipis, an employee of the Institute for the Study of National Security (Israel).