Ten years later, the mystery persists.
Ten years ago, on March 8, 2014, Malaysia Airlines flight MH 370 disappeared from radar screens.
On board, 239 passengers and crew members.
Departing from Kuala Lumpur, the Boeing 777, which was supposed to reach Beijing, suddenly disappeared over the Indian Ocean.
Despite extensive research, carried out for almost three years over 120,000 square km of ocean, only a few fragments of the device were found.
And one question remains: what happened on board the aircraft?
A murder-suicide of the pilot
The disappearance of the plane has long been the subject of a multitude of theories, in particular that evoking a deliberate act of the pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah, an experienced professional then aged 53.
In 2020, the former Australian Prime Minister indicated that in 2014, senior Malaysian officials had suspected the pilot of being at the origin of the tragedy, reports the Associated Press agency.
“I'm not going to say who said what to whom, but let me repeat, I want to be absolutely clear, it was understood at the highest levels that this was almost certainly a murder-suicide by the part of the pilot,” explained Tony Abbott.
A report released by Malaysia in 2018 highlighted air traffic control failures and said the plane's trajectory had been manually changed, but reached no definitive conclusions.
The pilot's family has long disputed any suicidal intention in their loved one.
A technical incident
Another avenue is being considered by investigators: that of a technical incident.
In their report, Australian investigators highlight the possibility of an “unresponsive team/hypoxia” on board, explaining “loss of radio communications”, “a long period without any maneuvers en route of the aircraft” , a “steadily maintained cruising altitude,” and “fuel exhaustion and descent.”
But the Australian Transport Safety Bureau document, published in summer 2014, warns: this "suggestion" is not a conclusion, and is "made for the sole purpose of assisting", at the time , “to define a search area”.
A hijacking of the plane
Another theory considers the hijacking of the plane.
The engineer and aeronautics expert Jean-Luc Marchand, and the pilot Patrick Blelly, say this in their independent report, dated February 2023: “the disappearance of MH 370 results from a well-prepared diversion by a highly qualified aeronautics person, and most likely by a professional pilot.
The main hypothesis is that this person left for a one-way trip with the aim of making the plane disappear without a trace, in the southern Indian Ocean.
Shortly after the attack, the hypothesis of a terrorist act was also raised, but was quickly ruled out by Interpol.
“The more information we obtain, the more inclined we are to conclude that this is not a terrorist incident,” indicated, on March 11, 2014, Ronald K. Noble, secretary general of the international security agency. police at the time.
As the disaster marks its 10th anniversary, Malaysian Prime Minister An said on Monday he would be "happy to restart" the search if there was "convincing" evidence.
The families of the victims, too, have renewed an appeal to this effect.
“Every year that passes without the plane being found is just another year of agonizing waiting,” says Grace Nathan, originally from Malaysia, who became a lawyer and spokesperson for the families, and who lost her mother in the drama.
To locate the missing flight, a team of researchers from the University of Liverpool is also carrying out work using radio technologies to follow the final flight path of the plane.
The objective?
Better determine the search area for the debris of the plane, to find parts... Like the black box of the flight, which contains the history of its journey, and of the tragedy.