Chris Goodfellow believes the pilot of the missing Malaysian Airlines
Flight MH370 was taking a direct route to Palau Langkawi airport,
pictured, after an in-flight emergency. (Google Earth)
A lot of speculation about MH370. Terrorism, hijack, meteors. I
cannot believe the analysis on CNN – almost disturbing. I tend to look
for a more simple explanation of this event.
Loaded 777 departs midnight from Kuala to Beijing. Hot night. Heavy
aircraft. About an hour out across the gulf towards Vietnam the plane
goes dark meaning the transponder goes off and secondary radar tracking
goes off.
Two days later we hear of reports that Malaysian military radar
(which is a primary radar meaning the plane is being tracked by
reflection rather than by transponder interrogation response) has
tracked the plane on a southwesterly course back across the Malay
Peninsula into the straits of Malacca.
When I heard this I immediately brought up Google Earth and I searched for airports in proximity to the track towards southwest.
The left turn is the key here. This was a very experienced senior
Captain with 18,000 hours. Maybe some of the younger pilots interviewed
on CNN didn’t pick up on this left turn. We old pilots were always
drilled to always know the closest airport of safe harbor while in
cruise. Airports behind us, airports abeam us and airports ahead of us.
Always in our head. Always. Because if something happens you don’t want
to be thinking what are you going to do – you already know what you are
going to do. Instinctively when I saw that left turn with a direct
heading I knew he was heading for an airport. Actually he was taking a
direct route to Palau Langkawi a 13,000 foot strip with an approach over
water at night with no obstacles. He did not turn back to Kuala Lampur
because he knew he had 8,000 foot ridges to cross. He knew the terrain
was friendlier towards Langkawi and also a shorter distance.
Take a look on Google Earth at this airport. This pilot did all the
right things. He was confronted by some major event onboard that made
him make that immediate turn back to the closest safe airport.
For me the loss of transponders and communications makes perfect
sense if a fire. There was most likely a fire or electrical fire. In the
case of fire the first response if to pull all the main busses and
restore circuits one by one until you have isolated the bad one.
If they pulled the busses the plane indeed would go silent. It was
probably a serious event and they simply were occupied with controlling
the plane and trying to fight the fire. Aviate, Navigate and lastly
communicate. There are two types of fires. Electrical might not be as
fast and furious and there might or might not be incapacitating smoke.
However there is the possibility given the timeline that perhaps there
was an overheat on one of the front landing gear tires and it blew on
takeoff and started slowly burning. Yes this happens with underinflated
tires. Remember heavy plane, hot night, sea level, long run takeoff.
There was a well known accident in Nigeria of a DC8 that had a landing
gear fire on takeoff. A tire fire once going would produce horrific
incapacitating smoke. Yes, pilots have access to oxygen masks but this
is a no no with fire. Most have access to a smoke hood with a filter but
this will only last for a few minutes depending on the smoke level. (I
used to carry one of my own in a flight bag and I still carry one in my
briefcase today when I fly).
What I think happened is that they were overcome by smoke and the
plane just continued on the heading probably on George (autopilot) until
either fuel exhaustion or fire destroyed the control surfaces and it
crashed. I said four days ago you will find it along that route –
looking elsewhere was pointless.
This pilot, as I say, was a hero struggling with an impossible
situation trying to get that plane to Langkawi. No doubt in my mind.
That’s the reason for the turn and direct route. A hijack would not have
made that deliberate left turn with a direct heading for Langkawi. It
would probably have weaved around a bit until the hijackers decided on
where they were taking it.
Surprisingly none of the reporters , officials, other pilots
interviewed have looked at this from the pilot’s viewpoint. If something
went wrong where would he go? Thanks to Google earth I spotted Langkawi
in about 30 seconds, zoomed in and saw how long the runway was and I
just instinctively knew this pilot knew this airport. He had probably
flown there many times. I guess we will eventually find out when you
help me spread this theory on the net and some reporters finally take a
look on Google earth and put 2 and 2 together. Also a look at the age
and number of cycles on those nose tires might give us a good clue too.
Fire in an aircraft demands one thing – you get the machine on the
ground as soon as possible. There are two well remembered experiences in
my memory. The AirCanada DC9 which landed I believe in Columbus Ohio in
the eighties. That pilot delayed descent and bypassed several airports.
He didn’t instinctively know the closest airports. He got it on the
ground eventually but lost 30 odd souls. In the 1998 crash of Swissair
DC-10 off Nova Scotia was another example of heroic pilots. They were 15
minutes out of Halifax but the fire simply overcame them and they had
to ditch in the ocean. Just ran out of time. That fire incidentally
started when the aircraft was about an hour out of Kennedy. Guess what
the transponders and communications were shut off as they pulled the
busses.
Get on Google Earth and type in Pulau Langkawi and then look at it in
relation to the radar track heading. 2+2=4 That for me is the simple
explanation why it turned and headed in that direction.
Smart pilot. Just didn’t have the time.
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source :
http://www.hellou.com/2014/03/veteran-pilot-explains-theory-flight-mh370-makes-perfect-sense-3147/
