Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
It's been five years since the state of the art
aircraft disappeared.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Nobody expects a triple seven to vanish. It just doesn't happen.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Where is Malaysia Airlines Flight three seventy.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Hundreds of loved ones gone missing, woo years of searching.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
It's an exactly the most remote part of the world.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
The surprises to be found off the coast of Reunion
Island and the Indian Ocean. The second piece of H
three seventy's wreckage picked up and the setbacks.
Speaker 5 (00:46):
It was terrible. It felt like we were right back
at the beginning again.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Questions still unanswered.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
We need to know what happened, and the only way
you're going to do it is.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
To find the There's just too much at stake here
to say we're going to.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Stop now vanished. The mystery of Malaysia Airlines Flight three seventy.
March eighth, twenty fourteen, Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Just after midnight,
(01:32):
the pilots of Malaysia Airlines Flight three seventy are preparing
for takeoff.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
It's all about checklists in aviation. They're going through checklists.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Miles O'Brien is a pilot and aviation analyst for CNN.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
It doesn't matter how mundane it is, how many times
you've done it, you do it religiously because that is
absolute foundation of safety and aviation.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
In the cockpit. Twenty seven year old first officer for
Rik Hamid. This video shows him training on the Triple
seven Flight three seventy was his first time flying the
aircraft without an instructor.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
So while his experience novel might have been low on
the aircraft, he was totally up to date on how
to fly it. A lot of airline pilots tell me
these are the best people to fly with because they've
just come out of rigorous training.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Next to Farik Zahari shaw a captain with over eighteen
thousand hours in the air and a stellar reputation.
Speaker 6 (02:34):
Captain Zari and me we go back about to Julias.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
We started flying together.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Nick Kuzlan is a former chief pilot for Malaysia Airlines.
Speaker 6 (02:44):
My wife is a chief stewardess, so my wife's on
what the aircraft. I would like Zari to fly the
planet because I've got great confidence in.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
The day.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
And there is real confidence in the aircraft. They're about
to fly. The Boeing triples sell them.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
It's a great airplane. It's got a sterling record of safety.
Speaker 6 (03:05):
That aircraft is actually the pinnacle of all the aircrafts
that I have flown. And the automation is just fantastic.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
For any critical electric or hydraulic system that would fail,
there are two or three backup systems. After making their
final preparations, the pilots are ready for pushback the.
Speaker 7 (03:28):
Fun.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
At twelve thirty two am, the pilot's taxi to.
Speaker 5 (03:34):
The runway zero to write a DECO nine.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Cleared for departure. Flight three seventy takes off for a
five and a half hour scheduled flight to Beijing.
Speaker 6 (03:58):
The human control, direct physical control under controls will probably
cease after lending year goes up, the fleat goes up,
and it goes on the pilot.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
By one am, the crew and two hundred twenty seven
passengers on board are cruising comfortably at thirty five thousand feet.
Even the pilots can relax a little. The plane is
basically now flying itself.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
There was no particular challenge there for a seasoned captain
and that first officer to handle that flight without any problem.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
And at one oh seven am, all seems well, according
to an automatic message sent from the aircraft's communication system
called eight CARS. Richard Quest is an anchor and aviation
correspondent for CNN.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
Think of a CARS as a giant smartphone that will
send out huge amounts of information va satellite or by
radio transmission.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Then at one nineteen am, a standard handoff with air
traffic control as the plane leaves Malaysian airspace and enters
Vietnamese airspace.
Speaker 8 (05:10):
Mala zero zero.
Speaker 6 (05:18):
The controller here in Merida tells him to speak to
Jimin and he says, good night Malaysian three seven zero, something.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
I would do.
Speaker 5 (05:25):
There was no indication that anything had gone wrong.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
David Sussi is a former safety inspector for the FAA.
So for the first forty minutes of this flight, up
to that point, everything has been routine. Yes, everything was
routine until now, two minutes after talking with air traffic Control,
forty minutes into the flight, the plane's transponder goes dark.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
The plane's transponder is effectively the instrument which sends out
a signals to air traffic control. It tells you what
height is, it's act which direction, and what speed it's traveling. Suddenly,
this giant Triple seven is blind to the world.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
And there's no easy explanation for why it happened.
Speaker 5 (06:13):
Either it was intentional and someone tried to turn all
of those systems off at once, or the pilot was
unable to communicate kept from communicating, or there was a
mechanical failure of some kind that took all those systems
out at one time.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Then minutes after the transponder stops, the Triple seven makes
an unexpected turn heading west and way off course.
Speaker 8 (06:37):
That the plane turned immediately after the transponder went off
is completely inexplicable and very worrisome.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Peter Goles is a former managing director of the NTSB.
Speaker 8 (06:52):
We don't know whether this was done voluntarily, whether it
was done under duress.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
We simply have no idea.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
No idea what really happened. But Gulls sees a red flag.
Speaker 8 (07:05):
It was completely out of the ordinary that there was
no distress goal, that the turn takes place and there's
absolute silence. It means that somebody on that plane redirected
it to a new course heading and they were not
telling anyone.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Not telling anyone, and never checking in with Vietnam air
traffic Control.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
The fact that the westerly turn happens at the point
of handover between Malaysia and Vietnam. For many is the
strongest evidence that something Nefaddeus was going on.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
You've investigated many incidents. Is that coincidence that everything seems
to go wrong at this particular critical moment.
Speaker 5 (07:54):
It can't be coincidence. I don't believe in coincidence with
my accidents. It just seems to me that there was something. Now,
it doesn't mean that it was nefarious, it doesn't mean
anything else. But remember there's a lot of systems doing
a lot of things at that time as well.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
So the critical moment is immediately after this handover, when
you're essentially in this kind of no man's land in
the sky.
Speaker 5 (08:16):
Yeah, nobody's watching.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Right then, no one was watching, and flight three seventy
would vanish coming up a critical mistake by air traffic
control with time running out.
Speaker 5 (08:37):
The aircraft was still flying, as we know now, that
just is so painful to think about that four hours later,
no one's looking yet.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
In the middle of the night. On March eighth, twenty fourteen,
at one twenty one am, Malaysia Airlines Flight three seventy
vanishes into thin air. There's been silence from the cockpit
and by one thirty seven am, a second flight communications
system a CARS isn't working.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
Either ACOSS was either switched off or it failed. We
don't know which because whatever did happen, this is the
crucial moment. We pretty much know that all the combs
are disabled, switched off, broken, blown up.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Is an investigator looking at this, what would the determination be,
at least to this point as to what is happening At.
Speaker 5 (09:47):
This point, I've got two different paths. One is that
that aircraft was taken over and that the systems were
intentionally set to shut down. The other side would be
that there was a singular failure at a harmon location,
and that singular mechanical failure would have done exactly the
same thing. At this point in investigation, there's no evidence
(10:07):
one way or the.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Other, but there would be piles of evidence. If a
CARS hadn't stopped transmitting.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
You'd know the air condition of the engines, the route
it was taking, the altitudes it was taking.
Speaker 9 (10:22):
We would know exactly the state of that aircraft.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Just the kind of information someone taking over a plane
wouldn't want anyone to know.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
If you were doing something nefarious, then switching off ACOS
would be a crucial part of making the plane go dark.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
The plane was dark and silent. There was still no
check in with the Vietnam Air Traffic Control A call
former chief pilot Nick Huslan has made thousands of times, you.
Speaker 6 (10:59):
Have to be like the drunk for you to forget
to check in after somebody tells you immediately to check in.
Every pilot will want to do that as soon as possible,
anything more than two to three minutes already at normal.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Around one twenty seven am, Ho Chimen's control center tries
to reach the aircraft.
Speaker 5 (11:22):
They tried the radio, They tried to call and see
if image three to seventy was out there no response.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
You attempt to communicate directly with the aircraft first.
Speaker 5 (11:29):
Right, that's the first thing you do. If that's not successful,
then you try to contact other aircraft around. And they
did do that and those airplanes tried to raise image
three to seventy as well.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
No success, with no response. An air traffic controller in
Kuala Lumpur calls Malaysia Airlines for help.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
I think fundamentally you have to assume nobody expects one
of these planes to fall out of the sky. Nobody
expects a triple seven to vanish.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
And Malaysia Airlines tells you air traffic Control a completely
different story. They say MH three to seventy hasn't vanished
at all, according to their own internal flight tracking system.
Speaker 5 (12:12):
Laysia Airlines says, oh, the aircraft's fine. We know exactly
where it is.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Yet they've had no communicators.
Speaker 5 (12:18):
They've had none, they've had none, so their system was
showing that the aircraft had continued to go on that heading.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Over the next hour and a half, Malaysia Airlines gives
air Traffic Control more promising messages. They had exchanged signals
with the flight The plane was in normal condition, and
the plane was flying off the coast of Vietnam along
its scheduled flightpath.
Speaker 5 (12:44):
And at that point the guard is let down. You
start going in a different direction. You're not searching rescue anymore,
you're just trying to communicate.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
But an hour and a half after that first reassuring message,
a tragic realization, Malaysia Airlines now tells air Traffic Control
the information was wrong.
Speaker 5 (13:04):
We don't know where the aircraft is. Our system told
us it was there, but it wasn't.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
The airline tells the air traffic control their flight tracking
program was based on flight projection and not reliable for
aircraft positioning.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Everything went wrong there, everything, It borders on scandal. The
airline in the middle of there just offering up just
complete red herrings and dead ends. It's inexcusable.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
At best, the Malaysia Airlines information to air traffic control
was unhelpful. At worst, it was downright damaging to getting
an investigation and the search underway quickly.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Not only did Malaysia Airlines have bad air traffic control
weighted to sound the alarm.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
I think air traffic control waits so long because it's
just the normal confusion.
Speaker 9 (14:08):
Of the moment.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
But at some point in all of this, an air
traffic controller can push the big red button.
Speaker 9 (14:16):
That says.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
Help panic missing plane. And that's what they didn't do
until much later.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Not until four hours after it's clear the plane is lost,
did air traffic control notify emergency responders.
Speaker 5 (14:37):
That just is so painful to think about that four
hours later, no one's looking.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Yet, as precious hours pass time is running out while
Flight three seventy flies further and further over. One of
the world's largest oceans coming up. What happened on board
flight three seventy.
Speaker 6 (15:04):
We do not know who to Pettah. We will never
know the reasons why.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
In the pitch black darkness, minutes after its last radio contact,
the Malaysian military spots a blip on its radars, its
speed and flight path erratic. They don't yet know it
is MH three seven.
Speaker 8 (15:41):
If you see a primary unidentified return flying torchs your
country at five hundred plus knots, that should raise concerns
very quickly, but.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
It didn't seem to find. Now the Triple seven is
believed to be hundreds of miles off if it's original course.
Speaker 7 (16:02):
We don't know what's normal for their military, and I
think that a big part of the problem with this
investigation is that the Malaysians were very tight lipped about
what they had, what they knew, and when they knew it.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
The Malaysian Air Force continued to track the plane for
an hour until it disappeared from radar. They never tell
anyone with civilian authority.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Governments don't want to talk about this. They don't want
to talk about holes in their radar system, a posture
which is not as ready as they want the world
to believe it to be.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Not only is no one told, nothing is done, no
jets are scrambled. The military would say later they chose
not to intercept the plane because it was friendly and
did not pose a threat to national security.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Why would you have an air force if it's not
capable of doing something like this. That's a big error.
That's a big mistake. And frankly, the Malaysian government has
not really accounted for in a proper way to these
families and to the rest.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Of the world. For David Sussi, however, there's a gray
area here.
Speaker 5 (17:07):
In the United States, we would know that in a
heartbeat over there. It wasn't set up that way. It
was a clear delineation of firewall between military and civil operations,
and the two just didn't meet each other.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
A missed opportunity. Exactly on the ground in Beijing, of course,
the families waiting patiently for the arrival of Flight three
seventy knew none of this. Finally, an hour after the
plane was expected to land, Malaysia Airlines makes its first
public announcement on Facebook dislight.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
We see our air traffic control at two twenty am.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
It quickly becomes the biggest story in the world.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Where is Malaysia Airlines Flight three?
Speaker 2 (18:00):
More questions than there are answers to the.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Hunt for Flight three seventy now covers millions of square miles.
The world's attention turns to the Malaysian government and airline officials.
To many critics, they don't seem to know what they're
talking about.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
There was a deer in the headlights component to those
early news conferences, and you can almost see them struggling
through it, not knowing what they were doing.
Speaker 9 (18:22):
And we cannot dutch in speculation in the state.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Not understanding how to begin the investigation.
Speaker 10 (18:27):
They are currently forty three ships and forty aircraft searching
for it.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
An unprecedented investigation that would baffle the greatest minds in
the aviation world and the accident investigation world.
Speaker 7 (18:39):
They put out information without really corroborating it, and much
of it turned out to be false.
Speaker 10 (18:43):
I would like to refer to news reports suggesting suggesting
that the aircraft may have continued flying for some time
after last content escalation. Airlines were confirmed shortly. Those reports
are inaccurate.
Speaker 7 (18:56):
So they ended up, you know, on both sides of
a bad situation.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
With too little information.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Even days after the plane disappeared, families believe they aren't
being told the truth.
Speaker 5 (19:12):
I know.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
This Chinese woman demanded answers just before another press conference
in Kuala Lumpur. She didn't get any.
Speaker 8 (19:23):
After ten days to two weeks. You know, there was
a public perception that was set in stone that the
Malaysians were not able to handle this situation and that
they were having trouble as far as.
Speaker 10 (19:37):
The images concerned.
Speaker 9 (19:40):
I don't think we can actually verify when they would
take him.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
I would check with the.
Speaker 11 (19:47):
This is very important, I know, I know, I know
it is very important.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
Than family members were left asking what on earth was.
Speaker 12 (19:55):
Happening, and one wonders four the interests are being served,
are protected by the long wait and something that's increasingly
feeling surreal and is rapidly turning into a farce.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
The main priority is the Orange area. Adding to that
the early conflicting reports on where authorities think the plane
actually is and whether it had turned or not.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
Initially, the Malaysians said there was no turnaround. The Transport
minister said no turnaround, and he was very definitive, and
that was misleading and that was wrong.
Speaker 9 (20:29):
It's noticeable in.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
The day and days after he became he hedged, he hedged,
he suddenly, I'm not talking about that.
Speaker 9 (20:37):
I'm not saying that. We're not commenting on that.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Weeks after the flight vanished, Richard Quest put some of
those questions to Malaysia's then Prime minister.
Speaker 4 (20:45):
What would you say to the critics and be blunt
prime minister who say Malaysia wasted time at various parts
of the investigation.
Speaker 11 (20:53):
I don't think no affair, Chris sist. You remember when
the plane was reported lost. I was briefed that morning,
and I took the decision that we must search both
areas a Sauch China Sea and the northern part of Stas.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
I'm black, But no one was willing to comment either
on the biggest unanswered question. Did MGE three to seventy
vanish because somebody with intent took over its controls?
Speaker 6 (21:24):
There is some level of human intervention.
Speaker 9 (21:27):
This is undoubted.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Nick Kuslan has piloted the plane thousands of times. We
do not know who the perpetrator are.
Speaker 6 (21:35):
We will never know the reasons why.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
No matter what scenario you go with, we're deep into
the world of crazy. Crazy scenario obscure scenario, evil scenario,
whatever it is, it's we're in crazy.
Speaker 5 (21:49):
Land, right.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
This is stuff that doesn't happen, but.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
It did happen, a truly astounding mystery. There is only
a handful of verifiable facts, and after the confusion, delay
and chaos engendered in the first few weeks, comes this
a completely different search area based purely on mathematics.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
It's never been done before. They were making it up
as they go along. They were using information that was
never intended to be used for this.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
Purpose, coming up searching in all the wrong places. Why
was there so much confusion when it came to where
to search.
Speaker 5 (22:30):
We had no idea where that aircraft was, But yet
the pressure's on to do something.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
On the morning of March eighth, four hours after Flight
three seventy disappears, a search is launched in the South
China Sea, east of Malaysia.
Speaker 4 (23:16):
As with any search, you start where the plane was
last seen.
Speaker 8 (23:20):
We begin this morning with a desperate search at sea
after a jet carrying two hundred and thirty nine people
vanished off the southern coast of Vietnam.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
But very quickly overnight, very quickly, there's no debris. They
can't find anything from the aircraft, and that's unusual.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Even more unusual, searchers also start looking in the opposite direction,
hundreds of miles to the west.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
I sat in the studio covering this, and we would
look at each other and he say.
Speaker 9 (23:53):
Hey, did he just simply say did he see say,
we're looking to the west.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Yes. That's because newly disco vered military radar reveals the
plane may have turned back to the west. At the
same time, new leads are coming in.
Speaker 13 (24:08):
Late today, Chinese authorities released satellite photos of what they
call a suspected crash site.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
An international fleet of aircraft and boats are now searching
in two different areas.
Speaker 4 (24:23):
They had to look in the east because that's where
debris was allegedly being reported. They had to look in
the west because that's where their radar data had told
them the plane had gone.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
But searchers still find nothing. Days turn into weeks and
the search area expands even farther. Why was there so
much confusion when it came to where to search.
Speaker 5 (24:48):
We had no idea where that aircraft was, But yet
the pressure's on to do something.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Prestre seven one, it became the biggest oceanic search of
all time.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
This is completely unpressed on so many levels. Nothing has
ever happened quite like this.
Speaker 4 (25:04):
And into this confusion suddenly drops the Inmarsat data.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Immersat, a British company, reports that Flight three seventy had
exchanged digital signals known as handshakes with their satellites.
Speaker 8 (25:21):
That was a watershed moment and that changed everything.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
It changed everything because everyone had thought Flight three seventy
had gone completely dark, but the discovery of the digital
handshakes was proved the plane was in the air for
several hours, longer than anyone thought.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
Suddenly they have evidence that it flew west and south
and continued to fly for some six and a half hours.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Using complicated calculations, Immersat could roughly determine where the plane
was going.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
This is evidence that is kind of getting close to
black magic. I mean, it's a feat of mathematics and
an ingenuity and reverse engineering, but we just don't know
how accurate it is.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
But it is also the only hard evidence available to
investigators and Malaysia's Prime Minister at the time, Najibrazak, I.
Speaker 11 (26:16):
Asked them again and again are you sure, And their
answer to me was we are as sure as we
can possibly be.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
He needed to be sure, because based on those calculations,
the Prime Minister was about to deliver some very somber news.
Speaker 9 (26:35):
Flight MH three seven zero.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Ended in a sudden Indian Ocean, the Southern Indian Ocean,
thousands of miles away, where no one could likely have survived.
Family members were shocked, destray and angry there would be
(27:03):
no rescues. One last hope remained. Could they find the
black boxes before they stop emitting pings.
Speaker 4 (27:12):
You're not in an ivory tower. You haven't got the
luxury of time. You've got pingers that may expire. So
you've got to say this is our best guess.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Now their best guess is a remote area more than
twice the size of California.
Speaker 10 (27:29):
Good morning, the aircraft flying today.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
The Australians take over the search and soon after the
Australian ship Ocean Sheer lowers its toaed PingER locator into
the water. Pings are detected.
Speaker 5 (27:46):
Clearly this is a mouse promising lead. It was wow again,
it was miraculous. They had just put the toad PingER
locator in the water.
Speaker 9 (27:55):
I was convinced this is it. They've got the answer.
It's a matter of.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
A robotic submarine scours the three hundred and twenty nine
square mile area where the pings were heard. It's painstakingly
slow work. Then two months later.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
A massive setback in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight
three seventy. The US Navy says the underwater pings are
not from the plane's black boxes.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
How big a setback was.
Speaker 5 (28:24):
That, Oh, it's terrible. It felt like we were right
back at the beginning again.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Back to the beginning, and no closer to solving the
mystery of Malaysia Flight three seventy. Coming up, authorities investigate
the last two men known to be in the cockpit
of flight three seventy.
Speaker 9 (28:48):
We need to know what happened. It is not an
option not to know.
Speaker 12 (29:26):
Malasian three seven zero come back to what you mean?
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Went to zero dismal.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
These are the last words heard from the cockpit of
Malaysia flight three seventy and the moment the mystery begins.
Speaker 8 (29:43):
Do you have a series of events that appear to
be human driven. Yeah, you have a transponder being turned off.
You have an eight car system being turned off. You
have the plane being turned not once, but at least twice,
probably three times.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
And most perplexing, no distress call.
Speaker 5 (30:05):
There are so many ways to notify people that there's
a distress UHF radios, VHF radios, many, many, many ways.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
None of that happened, none of them. Could the disappearance
of MH three to seventy have been deliberate? To answer
that question, investigators zero in on the last two men
known to be in control of the plane, seen here
passing through security on the night of the flight. First
Officer Fik Khamide was only twenty seven years old.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Very young to be fining a triple seven in the US,
but had gone through all the gates and had passed
and was with a very senior guy. That's a perfectly
safe scenario.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
Freik had no known motive and no apparent reason to
take down the plane.
Speaker 8 (30:55):
There was just no indication that there was anything going
on and his life other than he had made it.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Farik had made it and was on an impressive career trajectory.
Speaker 4 (31:07):
At five thousand hours on the seven three seven. You
go from a small plane through a big plane, and
this was his promotion.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
CNN aviation correspondent Richard Quest gained permission to fly in
Malaysia Airlines in February twenty fourteen. In an eery coincidence,
it was one of Farik's last training flights on the
Boeing Triple seven.
Speaker 4 (31:29):
There is absolutely no question that he was a qualified,
competent pilot. The captain said he was one of the
best they had. He landed the aircraft perfectly, you.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Know how impressed people.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
One of Farik's next flights would be his last, Malaysia
three seventy. And what about the pilot sitting beside Ferik,
coming Captain Zahari Ahmed Shaw and the flight simulator he
had built in his home to practice landings.
Speaker 10 (32:08):
Yesterday, officers from the Royal Nation Police visited the home
of the pilot.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
It seemed like a potential lead until investigators declared it
a dead end.
Speaker 7 (32:20):
The examination of the flight simulators revealed nothing suspicious for
the authorities.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
Like First Officer Farik, Zahari lacked any apparent motive.
Speaker 7 (32:32):
Many aspects of the case have been centered on the captain,
and the more they've looked, the less they've found.
Speaker 9 (32:39):
I just don't see any logic.
Speaker 11 (32:42):
I don't see any reason why he would want to.
Speaker 5 (32:46):
Be a rope pilot.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
Zahari's sister, sucking um Ahmed Shaw, spoke out to Channel
News Asia months after the plane's disappearance.
Speaker 11 (32:55):
He did not have that kind of make up.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
He got married very early.
Speaker 6 (33:01):
Socially great guy, extremely helpful and all he's willing to share.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Nick Huzlan met Zahari at Malaysia Airlines during the rigorous
days at flight school thirty five years ago.
Speaker 6 (33:15):
We had to polish our shoes until you can see it.
We can count our teeth in it. You know, everything
was very, very regimented.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Above all, Huslan remembers his friend as a skilled and
seasoned pilot who loved to fly. Seen here in a
video tribute posted by his family.
Speaker 6 (33:32):
It's crazy about flying. He flies real aeroplanes, goes home,
build small toy aeroplanes and flies them. He's got a
life of aviation running through his vein.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
But if it wasn't Zahari, and it wasn't for Reek,
what about the other passengers on flight three seventy. Could
it have been a hijacket?
Speaker 5 (33:53):
It would explain the fact that the radios were shut down,
possibly systematically. It would explain why there may not have
been communication. Are there any suspects They've gone through everybody
on the aircraft, and they've determined that there is no
one there that would match the profile of someone who
would take over that aircraft.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
If not human intervention, could something on the plane malfunction.
Speaker 4 (34:19):
It's got to fly for another six hours. That's the
problem with the mechanical questions.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
What kind of catastrophe could shut down the plane's communications
but still have allowed it to fly.
Speaker 4 (34:33):
Anybody that chooses to hang their hat on one scenario
or the other, in my view, is heading for a fall.
The entire experience of air crash investigations is that, yes,
it's usually the obvious, but it's quite frequently it's something
you've never even thought of.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
There's no way to know until the black boxes are found.
Until you find the plane, how can you rule anybody
anything out.
Speaker 5 (35:05):
What you can't What you'll know from the black boxes
is what happened. What you won't know necessarily is why there.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
Are no black boxes inside human beings. That's what we
need in this case.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
Our best hope of solving one of the greatest mysteries
of all time is presumably somewhere in the Indian Ocean.
Speaker 4 (35:29):
We need to know what happened We need to know
whether this plane came down at the point of a gun,
by the hand of the pilot, or whether by mechanical failure.
Speaker 9 (35:42):
It is not an option not to know.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Coming up a brand new search for answers begins in
the Indian Ocean.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
It's a big, big honk of ocean. It's as remote
as you can get and still be on this planet.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
The southern Indian Ocean rough remote forbidding.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
When we look at that root as pilots, we all
look at the charts and we look for the waypoints
in the airwaves. There aren't any. It's as remote as
you can get and still be on this planet.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
This is where experts believe the recage you're played three
seventy may lie. Finding it an immeasurable challenge.
Speaker 5 (37:05):
Put the analogy of what we got out there.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
At the moment, we're not searching for a needle in
a highst deck.
Speaker 11 (37:09):
We're still trying to define where the haighstack is.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
That was March of twenty fourteen when this vessel the
Ocean Shield, set out in hopes of finding the plane
and failed.
Speaker 13 (37:20):
Now this is no easy task. We have very good
techniques for detecting needles, in haystacks. We have high confidence
that if we've got the right haystack, we'll find a
needle inmit.
Speaker 1 (37:32):
The Australian Transportation Safety Bureau was leading the search, with
Chief Commissioner Martin Dolan in charge.
Speaker 13 (37:40):
It's six days sailing out from the coast of Australia.
We're operating at the range towards the limits of the
equipment that's available to us, which is the best equipment available.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
In May twenty fifteen, after the initial efforts turned up nothing,
they doubled the size of the priority search area.
Speaker 4 (37:59):
It is a huge area, and it's a complicated area
with valleys and ocean mountains and crevices.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
Complex terrain is not the only challenge they faced.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
You're grinding through high seas, strong winds, incredibly difficult conditions.
Speaker 4 (38:21):
They've had to winterize the ships so that they could
keep searching throughout the brutal winter.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
It wasn't easy and it wasn't cheap.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
The most expensive search in human history period. This is
all uncharted territory, literally and figuratively.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
Yet sixteen months of scouring the priority search zone yielded nothing.
Speaker 2 (38:51):
Not a single shred of evidence, not a one is
it possible there's floating wreckage out there and we just
haven't seen it. As time goes on, it's hard to
say that. I mean, eventually the stuff washes up, something
washes up.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
Finally, in July twenty fifteen, something did wash up. Debris
found off the coast of Reunion Island and the Indian Ocean,
thousands of miles from the search area. Beach cleaners found
debris on a remote island near Madagascar.
Speaker 4 (39:24):
What they found was an extremely intricate part of the wing.
It's known as the flapperon.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
French investigators later confirmed it was from the missing plane,
the first real discovery in a year and a half
and the first evidence that MH three seventy didn't simply vanish.
Speaker 4 (39:48):
It confirms that flight to m H three seventy ended
in the southern Indian Ocean. It doesn't tell us where,
it doesn't tell us how, but it gives you that
closure for the families, It tells you the plane ended
up in the water.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
But for family members like Sarah Baijak, true closure won't
come until the crash site is found.
Speaker 9 (40:16):
And the absence of a body.
Speaker 7 (40:18):
How do you not hold out hope?
Speaker 3 (40:20):
How could you just walk away from the potential, however small,
it is, that some miracle has happened.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
Hope would cling to the more than thirty pieces of
debris that have washed ashore in the five years since
the plane's disappearance, but so far no miracles.
Speaker 9 (40:40):
There's more than a thousand triple sevens are there.
Speaker 4 (40:43):
That speaks to the crucial nature of finding the aircraft,
not just for the humanitarian reasons of those on board,
but they've got to know what happened, and the only
way you're going to do it is to find the aircraft.
Speaker 2 (41:01):
Will we find it? I hope so as long as
we continue to look, there'll be a chance it will
be found.
Speaker 1 (41:11):
Since its disappearance, investigators have searched over one hundred and
forty four thousand square miles in the Southern Indian Ocean.
In a final safety report published in twenty eighteen, investigators
from eight countries reveal they don't know much more than
they did five years ago. The reason for the loss
of communication, Why did the plane change its flight path,
(41:34):
where did the plane end up? They don't know. To date,
the investigation could not determine the cause. At the disappearance
of MH three seventy two hundred and thirty nine passengers
and crew remain missing.
It's been five years since the state of the art
aircraft disappeared.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Nobody expects a triple seven to vanish. It just doesn't happen.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Where is Malaysia Airlines Flight three seventy.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Hundreds of loved ones gone missing, woo years of searching.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
It's an exactly the most remote part of the world.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
The surprises to be found off the coast of Reunion
Island and the Indian Ocean. The second piece of H
three seventy's wreckage picked up and the setbacks.
Speaker 5 (00:46):
It was terrible. It felt like we were right back
at the beginning again.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Questions still unanswered.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
We need to know what happened, and the only way
you're going to do it is.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
To find the There's just too much at stake here
to say we're going to.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Stop now vanished. The mystery of Malaysia Airlines Flight three seventy.
March eighth, twenty fourteen, Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Just after midnight,
(01:32):
the pilots of Malaysia Airlines Flight three seventy are preparing
for takeoff.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
It's all about checklists in aviation. They're going through checklists.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Miles O'Brien is a pilot and aviation analyst for CNN.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
It doesn't matter how mundane it is, how many times
you've done it, you do it religiously because that is
absolute foundation of safety and aviation.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
In the cockpit. Twenty seven year old first officer for
Rik Hamid. This video shows him training on the Triple
seven Flight three seventy was his first time flying the
aircraft without an instructor.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
So while his experience novel might have been low on
the aircraft, he was totally up to date on how
to fly it. A lot of airline pilots tell me
these are the best people to fly with because they've
just come out of rigorous training.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Next to Farik Zahari shaw a captain with over eighteen
thousand hours in the air and a stellar reputation.
Speaker 6 (02:34):
Captain Zari and me we go back about to Julias.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
We started flying together.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Nick Kuzlan is a former chief pilot for Malaysia Airlines.
Speaker 6 (02:44):
My wife is a chief stewardess, so my wife's on
what the aircraft. I would like Zari to fly the
planet because I've got great confidence in.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
The day.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
And there is real confidence in the aircraft. They're about
to fly. The Boeing triples sell them.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
It's a great airplane. It's got a sterling record of safety.
Speaker 6 (03:05):
That aircraft is actually the pinnacle of all the aircrafts
that I have flown. And the automation is just fantastic.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
For any critical electric or hydraulic system that would fail,
there are two or three backup systems. After making their
final preparations, the pilots are ready for pushback the.
Speaker 7 (03:28):
Fun.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
At twelve thirty two am, the pilot's taxi to.
Speaker 5 (03:34):
The runway zero to write a DECO nine.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Cleared for departure. Flight three seventy takes off for a
five and a half hour scheduled flight to Beijing.
Speaker 6 (03:58):
The human control, direct physical control under controls will probably
cease after lending year goes up, the fleat goes up,
and it goes on the pilot.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
By one am, the crew and two hundred twenty seven
passengers on board are cruising comfortably at thirty five thousand feet.
Even the pilots can relax a little. The plane is
basically now flying itself.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
There was no particular challenge there for a seasoned captain
and that first officer to handle that flight without any problem.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
And at one oh seven am, all seems well, according
to an automatic message sent from the aircraft's communication system
called eight CARS. Richard Quest is an anchor and aviation
correspondent for CNN.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
Think of a CARS as a giant smartphone that will
send out huge amounts of information va satellite or by
radio transmission.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Then at one nineteen am, a standard handoff with air
traffic control as the plane leaves Malaysian airspace and enters
Vietnamese airspace.
Speaker 8 (05:10):
Mala zero zero.
Speaker 6 (05:18):
The controller here in Merida tells him to speak to
Jimin and he says, good night Malaysian three seven zero, something.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
I would do.
Speaker 5 (05:25):
There was no indication that anything had gone wrong.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
David Sussi is a former safety inspector for the FAA.
So for the first forty minutes of this flight, up
to that point, everything has been routine. Yes, everything was
routine until now, two minutes after talking with air traffic Control,
forty minutes into the flight, the plane's transponder goes dark.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
The plane's transponder is effectively the instrument which sends out
a signals to air traffic control. It tells you what
height is, it's act which direction, and what speed it's traveling. Suddenly,
this giant Triple seven is blind to the world.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
And there's no easy explanation for why it happened.
Speaker 5 (06:13):
Either it was intentional and someone tried to turn all
of those systems off at once, or the pilot was
unable to communicate kept from communicating, or there was a
mechanical failure of some kind that took all those systems
out at one time.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Then minutes after the transponder stops, the Triple seven makes
an unexpected turn heading west and way off course.
Speaker 8 (06:37):
That the plane turned immediately after the transponder went off
is completely inexplicable and very worrisome.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Peter Goles is a former managing director of the NTSB.
Speaker 8 (06:52):
We don't know whether this was done voluntarily, whether it
was done under duress.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
We simply have no idea.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
No idea what really happened. But Gulls sees a red flag.
Speaker 8 (07:05):
It was completely out of the ordinary that there was
no distress goal, that the turn takes place and there's
absolute silence. It means that somebody on that plane redirected
it to a new course heading and they were not
telling anyone.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Not telling anyone, and never checking in with Vietnam air
traffic Control.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
The fact that the westerly turn happens at the point
of handover between Malaysia and Vietnam. For many is the
strongest evidence that something Nefaddeus was going on.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
You've investigated many incidents. Is that coincidence that everything seems
to go wrong at this particular critical moment.
Speaker 5 (07:54):
It can't be coincidence. I don't believe in coincidence with
my accidents. It just seems to me that there was something. Now,
it doesn't mean that it was nefarious, it doesn't mean
anything else. But remember there's a lot of systems doing
a lot of things at that time as well.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
So the critical moment is immediately after this handover, when
you're essentially in this kind of no man's land in
the sky.
Speaker 5 (08:16):
Yeah, nobody's watching.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Right then, no one was watching, and flight three seventy
would vanish coming up a critical mistake by air traffic
control with time running out.
Speaker 5 (08:37):
The aircraft was still flying, as we know now, that
just is so painful to think about that four hours later,
no one's looking yet.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
In the middle of the night. On March eighth, twenty fourteen,
at one twenty one am, Malaysia Airlines Flight three seventy
vanishes into thin air. There's been silence from the cockpit
and by one thirty seven am, a second flight communications
system a CARS isn't working.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
Either ACOSS was either switched off or it failed. We
don't know which because whatever did happen, this is the
crucial moment. We pretty much know that all the combs
are disabled, switched off, broken, blown up.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Is an investigator looking at this, what would the determination be,
at least to this point as to what is happening At.
Speaker 5 (09:47):
This point, I've got two different paths. One is that
that aircraft was taken over and that the systems were
intentionally set to shut down. The other side would be
that there was a singular failure at a harmon location,
and that singular mechanical failure would have done exactly the
same thing. At this point in investigation, there's no evidence
(10:07):
one way or the.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Other, but there would be piles of evidence. If a
CARS hadn't stopped transmitting.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
You'd know the air condition of the engines, the route
it was taking, the altitudes it was taking.
Speaker 9 (10:22):
We would know exactly the state of that aircraft.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Just the kind of information someone taking over a plane
wouldn't want anyone to know.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
If you were doing something nefarious, then switching off ACOS
would be a crucial part of making the plane go dark.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
The plane was dark and silent. There was still no
check in with the Vietnam Air Traffic Control A call
former chief pilot Nick Huslan has made thousands of times, you.
Speaker 6 (10:59):
Have to be like the drunk for you to forget
to check in after somebody tells you immediately to check in.
Every pilot will want to do that as soon as possible,
anything more than two to three minutes already at normal.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Around one twenty seven am, Ho Chimen's control center tries
to reach the aircraft.
Speaker 5 (11:22):
They tried the radio, They tried to call and see
if image three to seventy was out there no response.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
You attempt to communicate directly with the aircraft first.
Speaker 5 (11:29):
Right, that's the first thing you do. If that's not successful,
then you try to contact other aircraft around. And they
did do that and those airplanes tried to raise image
three to seventy as well.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
No success, with no response. An air traffic controller in
Kuala Lumpur calls Malaysia Airlines for help.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
I think fundamentally you have to assume nobody expects one
of these planes to fall out of the sky. Nobody
expects a triple seven to vanish.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
And Malaysia Airlines tells you air traffic Control a completely
different story. They say MH three to seventy hasn't vanished
at all, according to their own internal flight tracking system.
Speaker 5 (12:12):
Laysia Airlines says, oh, the aircraft's fine. We know exactly
where it is.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Yet they've had no communicators.
Speaker 5 (12:18):
They've had none, they've had none, so their system was
showing that the aircraft had continued to go on that heading.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Over the next hour and a half, Malaysia Airlines gives
air Traffic Control more promising messages. They had exchanged signals
with the flight The plane was in normal condition, and
the plane was flying off the coast of Vietnam along
its scheduled flightpath.
Speaker 5 (12:44):
And at that point the guard is let down. You
start going in a different direction. You're not searching rescue anymore,
you're just trying to communicate.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
But an hour and a half after that first reassuring message,
a tragic realization, Malaysia Airlines now tells air Traffic Control
the information was wrong.
Speaker 5 (13:04):
We don't know where the aircraft is. Our system told
us it was there, but it wasn't.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
The airline tells the air traffic control their flight tracking
program was based on flight projection and not reliable for
aircraft positioning.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Everything went wrong there, everything, It borders on scandal. The
airline in the middle of there just offering up just
complete red herrings and dead ends. It's inexcusable.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
At best, the Malaysia Airlines information to air traffic control
was unhelpful. At worst, it was downright damaging to getting
an investigation and the search underway quickly.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Not only did Malaysia Airlines have bad air traffic control
weighted to sound the alarm.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
I think air traffic control waits so long because it's
just the normal confusion.
Speaker 9 (14:08):
Of the moment.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
But at some point in all of this, an air
traffic controller can push the big red button.
Speaker 9 (14:16):
That says.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
Help panic missing plane. And that's what they didn't do
until much later.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Not until four hours after it's clear the plane is lost,
did air traffic control notify emergency responders.
Speaker 5 (14:37):
That just is so painful to think about that four
hours later, no one's looking.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Yet, as precious hours pass time is running out while
Flight three seventy flies further and further over. One of
the world's largest oceans coming up. What happened on board
flight three seventy.
Speaker 6 (15:04):
We do not know who to Pettah. We will never
know the reasons why.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
In the pitch black darkness, minutes after its last radio contact,
the Malaysian military spots a blip on its radars, its
speed and flight path erratic. They don't yet know it
is MH three seven.
Speaker 8 (15:41):
If you see a primary unidentified return flying torchs your
country at five hundred plus knots, that should raise concerns
very quickly, but.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
It didn't seem to find. Now the Triple seven is
believed to be hundreds of miles off if it's original course.
Speaker 7 (16:02):
We don't know what's normal for their military, and I
think that a big part of the problem with this
investigation is that the Malaysians were very tight lipped about
what they had, what they knew, and when they knew it.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
The Malaysian Air Force continued to track the plane for
an hour until it disappeared from radar. They never tell
anyone with civilian authority.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Governments don't want to talk about this. They don't want
to talk about holes in their radar system, a posture
which is not as ready as they want the world
to believe it to be.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Not only is no one told, nothing is done, no
jets are scrambled. The military would say later they chose
not to intercept the plane because it was friendly and
did not pose a threat to national security.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Why would you have an air force if it's not
capable of doing something like this. That's a big error.
That's a big mistake. And frankly, the Malaysian government has
not really accounted for in a proper way to these
families and to the rest.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Of the world. For David Sussi, however, there's a gray
area here.
Speaker 5 (17:07):
In the United States, we would know that in a
heartbeat over there. It wasn't set up that way. It
was a clear delineation of firewall between military and civil operations,
and the two just didn't meet each other.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
A missed opportunity. Exactly on the ground in Beijing, of course,
the families waiting patiently for the arrival of Flight three
seventy knew none of this. Finally, an hour after the
plane was expected to land, Malaysia Airlines makes its first
public announcement on Facebook dislight.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
We see our air traffic control at two twenty am.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
It quickly becomes the biggest story in the world.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Where is Malaysia Airlines Flight three?
Speaker 2 (18:00):
More questions than there are answers to the.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Hunt for Flight three seventy now covers millions of square miles.
The world's attention turns to the Malaysian government and airline officials.
To many critics, they don't seem to know what they're
talking about.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
There was a deer in the headlights component to those
early news conferences, and you can almost see them struggling
through it, not knowing what they were doing.
Speaker 9 (18:22):
And we cannot dutch in speculation in the state.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Not understanding how to begin the investigation.
Speaker 10 (18:27):
They are currently forty three ships and forty aircraft searching
for it.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
An unprecedented investigation that would baffle the greatest minds in
the aviation world and the accident investigation world.
Speaker 7 (18:39):
They put out information without really corroborating it, and much
of it turned out to be false.
Speaker 10 (18:43):
I would like to refer to news reports suggesting suggesting
that the aircraft may have continued flying for some time
after last content escalation. Airlines were confirmed shortly. Those reports
are inaccurate.
Speaker 7 (18:56):
So they ended up, you know, on both sides of
a bad situation.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
With too little information.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Even days after the plane disappeared, families believe they aren't
being told the truth.
Speaker 5 (19:12):
I know.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
This Chinese woman demanded answers just before another press conference
in Kuala Lumpur. She didn't get any.
Speaker 8 (19:23):
After ten days to two weeks. You know, there was
a public perception that was set in stone that the
Malaysians were not able to handle this situation and that
they were having trouble as far as.
Speaker 10 (19:37):
The images concerned.
Speaker 9 (19:40):
I don't think we can actually verify when they would
take him.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
I would check with the.
Speaker 11 (19:47):
This is very important, I know, I know, I know
it is very important.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
Than family members were left asking what on earth was.
Speaker 12 (19:55):
Happening, and one wonders four the interests are being served,
are protected by the long wait and something that's increasingly
feeling surreal and is rapidly turning into a farce.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
The main priority is the Orange area. Adding to that
the early conflicting reports on where authorities think the plane
actually is and whether it had turned or not.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
Initially, the Malaysians said there was no turnaround. The Transport
minister said no turnaround, and he was very definitive, and
that was misleading and that was wrong.
Speaker 9 (20:29):
It's noticeable in.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
The day and days after he became he hedged, he hedged,
he suddenly, I'm not talking about that.
Speaker 9 (20:37):
I'm not saying that. We're not commenting on that.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Weeks after the flight vanished, Richard Quest put some of
those questions to Malaysia's then Prime minister.
Speaker 4 (20:45):
What would you say to the critics and be blunt
prime minister who say Malaysia wasted time at various parts
of the investigation.
Speaker 11 (20:53):
I don't think no affair, Chris sist. You remember when
the plane was reported lost. I was briefed that morning,
and I took the decision that we must search both
areas a Sauch China Sea and the northern part of Stas.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
I'm black, But no one was willing to comment either
on the biggest unanswered question. Did MGE three to seventy
vanish because somebody with intent took over its controls?
Speaker 6 (21:24):
There is some level of human intervention.
Speaker 9 (21:27):
This is undoubted.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Nick Kuslan has piloted the plane thousands of times. We
do not know who the perpetrator are.
Speaker 6 (21:35):
We will never know the reasons why.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
No matter what scenario you go with, we're deep into
the world of crazy. Crazy scenario obscure scenario, evil scenario,
whatever it is, it's we're in crazy.
Speaker 5 (21:49):
Land, right.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
This is stuff that doesn't happen, but.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
It did happen, a truly astounding mystery. There is only
a handful of verifiable facts, and after the confusion, delay
and chaos engendered in the first few weeks, comes this
a completely different search area based purely on mathematics.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
It's never been done before. They were making it up
as they go along. They were using information that was
never intended to be used for this.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
Purpose, coming up searching in all the wrong places. Why
was there so much confusion when it came to where
to search.
Speaker 5 (22:30):
We had no idea where that aircraft was, But yet
the pressure's on to do something.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
On the morning of March eighth, four hours after Flight
three seventy disappears, a search is launched in the South
China Sea, east of Malaysia.
Speaker 4 (23:16):
As with any search, you start where the plane was
last seen.
Speaker 8 (23:20):
We begin this morning with a desperate search at sea
after a jet carrying two hundred and thirty nine people
vanished off the southern coast of Vietnam.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
But very quickly overnight, very quickly, there's no debris. They
can't find anything from the aircraft, and that's unusual.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Even more unusual, searchers also start looking in the opposite direction,
hundreds of miles to the west.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
I sat in the studio covering this, and we would
look at each other and he say.
Speaker 9 (23:53):
Hey, did he just simply say did he see say,
we're looking to the west.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Yes. That's because newly disco vered military radar reveals the
plane may have turned back to the west. At the
same time, new leads are coming in.
Speaker 13 (24:08):
Late today, Chinese authorities released satellite photos of what they
call a suspected crash site.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
An international fleet of aircraft and boats are now searching
in two different areas.
Speaker 4 (24:23):
They had to look in the east because that's where
debris was allegedly being reported. They had to look in
the west because that's where their radar data had told
them the plane had gone.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
But searchers still find nothing. Days turn into weeks and
the search area expands even farther. Why was there so
much confusion when it came to where to search.
Speaker 5 (24:48):
We had no idea where that aircraft was, But yet
the pressure's on to do something.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Prestre seven one, it became the biggest oceanic search of
all time.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
This is completely unpressed on so many levels. Nothing has
ever happened quite like this.
Speaker 4 (25:04):
And into this confusion suddenly drops the Inmarsat data.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Immersat, a British company, reports that Flight three seventy had
exchanged digital signals known as handshakes with their satellites.
Speaker 8 (25:21):
That was a watershed moment and that changed everything.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
It changed everything because everyone had thought Flight three seventy
had gone completely dark, but the discovery of the digital
handshakes was proved the plane was in the air for
several hours, longer than anyone thought.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
Suddenly they have evidence that it flew west and south
and continued to fly for some six and a half hours.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Using complicated calculations, Immersat could roughly determine where the plane
was going.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
This is evidence that is kind of getting close to
black magic. I mean, it's a feat of mathematics and
an ingenuity and reverse engineering, but we just don't know
how accurate it is.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
But it is also the only hard evidence available to
investigators and Malaysia's Prime Minister at the time, Najibrazak, I.
Speaker 11 (26:16):
Asked them again and again are you sure, And their
answer to me was we are as sure as we
can possibly be.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
He needed to be sure, because based on those calculations,
the Prime Minister was about to deliver some very somber news.
Speaker 9 (26:35):
Flight MH three seven zero.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Ended in a sudden Indian Ocean, the Southern Indian Ocean,
thousands of miles away, where no one could likely have survived.
Family members were shocked, destray and angry there would be
(27:03):
no rescues. One last hope remained. Could they find the
black boxes before they stop emitting pings.
Speaker 4 (27:12):
You're not in an ivory tower. You haven't got the
luxury of time. You've got pingers that may expire. So
you've got to say this is our best guess.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Now their best guess is a remote area more than
twice the size of California.
Speaker 10 (27:29):
Good morning, the aircraft flying today.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
The Australians take over the search and soon after the
Australian ship Ocean Sheer lowers its toaed PingER locator into
the water. Pings are detected.
Speaker 5 (27:46):
Clearly this is a mouse promising lead. It was wow again,
it was miraculous. They had just put the toad PingER
locator in the water.
Speaker 9 (27:55):
I was convinced this is it. They've got the answer.
It's a matter of.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
A robotic submarine scours the three hundred and twenty nine
square mile area where the pings were heard. It's painstakingly
slow work. Then two months later.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
A massive setback in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight
three seventy. The US Navy says the underwater pings are
not from the plane's black boxes.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
How big a setback was.
Speaker 5 (28:24):
That, Oh, it's terrible. It felt like we were right
back at the beginning again.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Back to the beginning, and no closer to solving the
mystery of Malaysia Flight three seventy. Coming up, authorities investigate
the last two men known to be in the cockpit
of flight three seventy.
Speaker 9 (28:48):
We need to know what happened. It is not an
option not to know.
Speaker 12 (29:26):
Malasian three seven zero come back to what you mean?
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Went to zero dismal.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
These are the last words heard from the cockpit of
Malaysia flight three seventy and the moment the mystery begins.
Speaker 8 (29:43):
Do you have a series of events that appear to
be human driven. Yeah, you have a transponder being turned off.
You have an eight car system being turned off. You
have the plane being turned not once, but at least twice,
probably three times.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
And most perplexing, no distress call.
Speaker 5 (30:05):
There are so many ways to notify people that there's
a distress UHF radios, VHF radios, many, many, many ways.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
None of that happened, none of them. Could the disappearance
of MH three to seventy have been deliberate? To answer
that question, investigators zero in on the last two men
known to be in control of the plane, seen here
passing through security on the night of the flight. First
Officer Fik Khamide was only twenty seven years old.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Very young to be fining a triple seven in the US,
but had gone through all the gates and had passed
and was with a very senior guy. That's a perfectly
safe scenario.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
Freik had no known motive and no apparent reason to
take down the plane.
Speaker 8 (30:55):
There was just no indication that there was anything going
on and his life other than he had made it.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Farik had made it and was on an impressive career trajectory.
Speaker 4 (31:07):
At five thousand hours on the seven three seven. You
go from a small plane through a big plane, and
this was his promotion.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
CNN aviation correspondent Richard Quest gained permission to fly in
Malaysia Airlines in February twenty fourteen. In an eery coincidence,
it was one of Farik's last training flights on the
Boeing Triple seven.
Speaker 4 (31:29):
There is absolutely no question that he was a qualified,
competent pilot. The captain said he was one of the
best they had. He landed the aircraft perfectly, you.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Know how impressed people.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
One of Farik's next flights would be his last, Malaysia
three seventy. And what about the pilot sitting beside Ferik,
coming Captain Zahari Ahmed Shaw and the flight simulator he
had built in his home to practice landings.
Speaker 10 (32:08):
Yesterday, officers from the Royal Nation Police visited the home
of the pilot.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
It seemed like a potential lead until investigators declared it
a dead end.
Speaker 7 (32:20):
The examination of the flight simulators revealed nothing suspicious for
the authorities.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
Like First Officer Farik, Zahari lacked any apparent motive.
Speaker 7 (32:32):
Many aspects of the case have been centered on the captain,
and the more they've looked, the less they've found.
Speaker 9 (32:39):
I just don't see any logic.
Speaker 11 (32:42):
I don't see any reason why he would want to.
Speaker 5 (32:46):
Be a rope pilot.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
Zahari's sister, sucking um Ahmed Shaw, spoke out to Channel
News Asia months after the plane's disappearance.
Speaker 11 (32:55):
He did not have that kind of make up.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
He got married very early.
Speaker 6 (33:01):
Socially great guy, extremely helpful and all he's willing to share.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Nick Huzlan met Zahari at Malaysia Airlines during the rigorous
days at flight school thirty five years ago.
Speaker 6 (33:15):
We had to polish our shoes until you can see it.
We can count our teeth in it. You know, everything
was very, very regimented.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Above all, Huslan remembers his friend as a skilled and
seasoned pilot who loved to fly. Seen here in a
video tribute posted by his family.
Speaker 6 (33:32):
It's crazy about flying. He flies real aeroplanes, goes home,
build small toy aeroplanes and flies them. He's got a
life of aviation running through his vein.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
But if it wasn't Zahari, and it wasn't for Reek,
what about the other passengers on flight three seventy. Could
it have been a hijacket?
Speaker 5 (33:53):
It would explain the fact that the radios were shut down,
possibly systematically. It would explain why there may not have
been communication. Are there any suspects They've gone through everybody
on the aircraft, and they've determined that there is no
one there that would match the profile of someone who
would take over that aircraft.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
If not human intervention, could something on the plane malfunction.
Speaker 4 (34:19):
It's got to fly for another six hours. That's the
problem with the mechanical questions.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
What kind of catastrophe could shut down the plane's communications
but still have allowed it to fly.
Speaker 4 (34:33):
Anybody that chooses to hang their hat on one scenario
or the other, in my view, is heading for a fall.
The entire experience of air crash investigations is that, yes,
it's usually the obvious, but it's quite frequently it's something
you've never even thought of.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
There's no way to know until the black boxes are found.
Until you find the plane, how can you rule anybody
anything out.
Speaker 5 (35:05):
What you can't What you'll know from the black boxes
is what happened. What you won't know necessarily is why there.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
Are no black boxes inside human beings. That's what we
need in this case.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
Our best hope of solving one of the greatest mysteries
of all time is presumably somewhere in the Indian Ocean.
Speaker 4 (35:29):
We need to know what happened We need to know
whether this plane came down at the point of a gun,
by the hand of the pilot, or whether by mechanical failure.
Speaker 9 (35:42):
It is not an option not to know.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Coming up a brand new search for answers begins in
the Indian Ocean.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
It's a big, big honk of ocean. It's as remote
as you can get and still be on this planet.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
The southern Indian Ocean rough remote forbidding.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
When we look at that root as pilots, we all
look at the charts and we look for the waypoints
in the airwaves. There aren't any. It's as remote as
you can get and still be on this planet.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
This is where experts believe the recage you're played three
seventy may lie. Finding it an immeasurable challenge.
Speaker 5 (37:05):
Put the analogy of what we got out there.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
At the moment, we're not searching for a needle in
a highst deck.
Speaker 11 (37:09):
We're still trying to define where the haighstack is.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
That was March of twenty fourteen when this vessel the
Ocean Shield, set out in hopes of finding the plane
and failed.
Speaker 13 (37:20):
Now this is no easy task. We have very good
techniques for detecting needles, in haystacks. We have high confidence
that if we've got the right haystack, we'll find a
needle inmit.
Speaker 1 (37:32):
The Australian Transportation Safety Bureau was leading the search, with
Chief Commissioner Martin Dolan in charge.
Speaker 13 (37:40):
It's six days sailing out from the coast of Australia.
We're operating at the range towards the limits of the
equipment that's available to us, which is the best equipment available.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
In May twenty fifteen, after the initial efforts turned up nothing,
they doubled the size of the priority search area.
Speaker 4 (37:59):
It is a huge area, and it's a complicated area
with valleys and ocean mountains and crevices.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
Complex terrain is not the only challenge they faced.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
You're grinding through high seas, strong winds, incredibly difficult conditions.
Speaker 4 (38:21):
They've had to winterize the ships so that they could
keep searching throughout the brutal winter.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
It wasn't easy and it wasn't cheap.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
The most expensive search in human history period. This is
all uncharted territory, literally and figuratively.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
Yet sixteen months of scouring the priority search zone yielded nothing.
Speaker 2 (38:51):
Not a single shred of evidence, not a one is
it possible there's floating wreckage out there and we just
haven't seen it. As time goes on, it's hard to
say that. I mean, eventually the stuff washes up, something
washes up.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
Finally, in July twenty fifteen, something did wash up. Debris
found off the coast of Reunion Island and the Indian Ocean,
thousands of miles from the search area. Beach cleaners found
debris on a remote island near Madagascar.
Speaker 4 (39:24):
What they found was an extremely intricate part of the wing.
It's known as the flapperon.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
French investigators later confirmed it was from the missing plane,
the first real discovery in a year and a half
and the first evidence that MH three seventy didn't simply vanish.
Speaker 4 (39:48):
It confirms that flight to m H three seventy ended
in the southern Indian Ocean. It doesn't tell us where,
it doesn't tell us how, but it gives you that
closure for the families, It tells you the plane ended
up in the water.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
But for family members like Sarah Baijak, true closure won't
come until the crash site is found.
Speaker 9 (40:16):
And the absence of a body.
Speaker 7 (40:18):
How do you not hold out hope?
Speaker 3 (40:20):
How could you just walk away from the potential, however small,
it is, that some miracle has happened.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
Hope would cling to the more than thirty pieces of
debris that have washed ashore in the five years since
the plane's disappearance, but so far no miracles.
Speaker 9 (40:40):
There's more than a thousand triple sevens are there.
Speaker 4 (40:43):
That speaks to the crucial nature of finding the aircraft,
not just for the humanitarian reasons of those on board,
but they've got to know what happened, and the only
way you're going to do it is to find the aircraft.
Speaker 2 (41:01):
Will we find it? I hope so as long as
we continue to look, there'll be a chance it will
be found.
Speaker 1 (41:11):
Since its disappearance, investigators have searched over one hundred and
forty four thousand square miles in the Southern Indian Ocean.
In a final safety report published in twenty eighteen, investigators
from eight countries reveal they don't know much more than
they did five years ago. The reason for the loss
of communication, Why did the plane change its flight path,
(41:34):
where did the plane end up? They don't know. To date,
the investigation could not determine the cause. At the disappearance
of MH three seventy two hundred and thirty nine passengers
and crew remain missing.
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