Is one of the greatest mysteries in the history of aviation about to be solved? New radar data, unused until now, revive the theory of a hijacking of flight MH 370, which disappeared on March 8, 2014 over the Indian Ocean.
This data was analyzed by Patrick Blelly, a former Air France long-haul pilot. According to him, they support the theory of a hijacking followed by suicide, an avenue already explored by investigators, but which has never been proven. They point above all towards an area of the Indian Ocean which has not yet been searched, according to La Dépêche, and thus revive the hope of finding the plane.
The data used by Patrick Blelly and his team comes from Geoscience Australia, an Australian public agency. They make it possible to accurately reconstruct the trajectory of the aircraft, which left Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) to reach Beijing (China). After its transponder was turned off, as it prepared to enter Vietnamese airspace, the Boing 777 made a "very tight" U-turn, suggesting "manual piloting", experts explained to West France.
Emergency descent
According to the data, an emergency descent was then carried out. A way to “make passengers believe that there was a problem”, to ensure that “no one moves”, the experts told the regional daily. The cabin would then have been “voluntarily depressurized”, leading to the death of the 239 passengers “from hypothermia and lack of oxygen”.
The pilot was able to continue steering the plane thanks to the greater reserves in the cockpit. He was probably not there alone: according to experts, the co-pilot was in the cabin, from where he tried to alert the outside world with his mobile phone. It thus reached the level of the island of Penang, in Malaysia, 30 minutes after the U-turn. But no call could be made.
The aircraft then headed south, after passing north of the island of Sumatra. He would have continued on his way until his fuel reserves were exhausted. A new landing zone, which has not yet been the subject of research, was able to be identified using this data. With an area of 2,200 km2, it could be explored in around ten days, experts assure. Two companies have already said they are ready to resume research. The Malaysian government has not commented, but the Prime Minister declared in March that he would be “happy” to relaunch them in the event of “convincing” evidence.