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Tonight, one of the most chilling aviation mysteries in modern day.

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239 people vanish over the Indian Ocean without a trace.

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With not enough oxygen feeding the brain, people can't do the simplest things, let alone

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something as complicated as piloting a commercial aircraft.

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Now we'll uncover the top theories surrounding the world's most infamous missing aircraft.

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The officials and most of the media convinced themselves that the satellite data could only

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mean one thing, that the plane went south.

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But they were wrong.

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Was it potentially a murder suicide?

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There's 227 passengers on board.

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Any of them could be responsible.

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Can new clues bring us closer to answers?

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If the plane isn't flying itself, was it something more sinister?

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Because planes don't just disappear.

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What really happened to Malaysia Flight 370?

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March 8th, 2014.

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Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

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Malaysia Flight 370 sits on the runway awaiting clearance for takeoff.

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The cabin has been secured.

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Tray tables and seat backs are in their upright and locked position.

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And the flight attendants are ready for what they hope will be a routine flight.

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On board we have 239 people, 227 passengers.

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We have 12 crew members.

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The 12 crew members are all Malaysian citizens.

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And up front we have Captain Shah.

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Their head is a Beijing International Airport.

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It's a routine flight.

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They make it twice a day.

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March 8th is no exception.

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This flight was a flight that Zahari Shah, the captain of the flight, was quite familiar

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with.

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Normally, the flight takes about six hours, flying over a handful of countries and international

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waters.

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At 12.40 am, MH370 is cleared for takeoff.

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Recording inside the radio chatter back and forth between the aircraft and the tower

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shows that everything is routine.

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Mundane even.

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At 106, the plane's computer sends an automated position report.

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The transponders are continuously communicating with air traffic control, relaying information

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about the flight status.

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These messages show up on what's called secondary radar.

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At this point, MH370 is flying on course and has 96,000 pounds of fuel remaining.

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That's enough fuel for another six to seven hours of flight.

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A few minutes later, at 119, Captain Shah radios air traffic control as he transitions

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from Malaysian to Vietnamese airspace.

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Air traffic control in Kuala Lumpur radios MH370 and says contact Ho Chi Minh on 120

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decimal niner.

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Good night.

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That means it's time for MH370 to call the Vietnamese controllers on the frequency given.

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Mr. Hari then says, good night, Malaysia 370.

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So everything seems fine.

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The next thing that should happen is that air traffic controllers in Ho Chi Minh city

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should hear from Malaysia 370.

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But that's not what happens.

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The Vietnamese air traffic controller at Ho Chi Minh never hear from that flight at the

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scheduled time.

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And all of a sudden, the flight transponders aren't responding at all and they disappear

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from the air traffic controller screen.

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But 38 minutes into the flight, Malaysia 370 simply disappears from radar.

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It's really inexplicable that this aircraft, which had been flying and transmitting the

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secondary data all along, would at this point of transition just disappear.

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The transponder was turned off.

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The power was in some way stopped to the transponder.

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We don't know why it happened.

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In modern aviation, air traffic controllers know exactly where their airplanes are through

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secondary radars and precisely scheduled communications.

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So this is something that doesn't happen.

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Planes don't just vanish.

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Alarm bells immediately ring and Vietnamese air controllers desperately attempt to contact

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the aircraft.

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It's just not the case that an airliner would be flying through some nation's airspace

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without the controllers knowing who it is, where it is, and why it's there.

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It's the way it works.

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It doesn't happen otherwise.

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They tried to contact a cockpit through the satellite phone several times, but there was

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no answer.

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Then it was clear to them that the aircraft crashed into the sea.

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How could this happen so suddenly?

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Why was there no warning from the pilot?

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No Mayday?

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Nothing.

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This kicks off what will eventually become the most expensive search in aviation history.

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Everyone, dozens of governments, hundreds of families all want to know what happened

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to MH370.

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By 5.30 a.m. a massive search and rescue mission is underway.

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Together 26 countries to help with the search by sending 50 ships and about 60 aircraft.

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They're looking for anything on the water.

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wreckage, oil slag.

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The search starts naturally where the last transmission from the aircraft occurred and

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last radar trace was found.

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It was right on the border between the Gulf of Thailand and South China Sea.

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So they do find some oil slick.

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They test it to see if it's aviation fuel, but it's not.

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They look at satellite imagery.

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They see what they think is debris, but they physically go out there and there's nothing

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there.

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If the aircraft had crashed in that area initially, they'd be debris and oil slick and plastic

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and stuff all over the China Sea.

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Makes no sense that there's no sign of this airplane anywhere.

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After two days of searching, investigators turn to military radar records.

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Radar on military bases are constantly tracking to see if there's anything in range.

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Malaysia Flight 370 would have been in radar range for bases in Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam.

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So their radar records track the plane as well.

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And they do it slightly differently.

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Radars rely on secondary radar, which requires a signal from the airplane's transponder.

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And that's what they've been using to search for MH370 so far.

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But the military uses what's called primary radar.

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Primary radar doesn't require a special signal from an airplane.

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It sends out radio waves where it bounces off any object that might be in the sky.

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And it reflects that radio signal back.

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It's kind of like echolocation, like a bat would use, but on a large scale.

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A Boeing 777 has two transponders.

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Specifically in case one fails, the other one is still going to be fine.

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So when MH370 vanishes from all the radar, that means both transponders are dead at the

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same time.

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After the transponder is turned off, the secondary radar can't see the airplane anymore.

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But guess what?

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The primary radar can still see the airplane and continues to track it.

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It shows the airplane keeps flying.

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Not only does it keep flying, it makes drastic course changes, just as it's supposed to

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cross into Vietnamese airspace.

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So MH370 turns a little bit to the east, then kind of loops back around.

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It's almost like it's turning back, back towards Malaysia.

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But then MH370 approaches the isle of Penang and flies near the Strait of Malacca.

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Military radar tracks MH370 for another 230 miles into the Andaman Sea, until the aircraft

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finally goes out of range.

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So in other words, they're looking in the wrong place.

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The searchers move their search to the Andaman Sea.

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But once again, there's nothing there.

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So the investigators are closer, but they're clearly not close enough.

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Keep in mind, military radar doesn't pinpoint where this airplane stops flying.

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As far as we know, it's still in the air, all the way until it goes out of range.

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After that, it could have gone in a lot of different directions.

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The radar records raise an important question.

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Why does the plane fly off course?

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Before Malaysia flight 370 vanishes on March 8, 2014, investigators are shocked to learn

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that the plane deviated from its route.

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The MH370 planned flight path would have had it flying over the South China Sea towards

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Beijing.

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But the radar tracking shows it made a series of turns going towards the west.

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And it just keeps flying until it goes out of radar range.

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Once investigators realized the airplane kept flying, every possible theory was out there.

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Was it a bomb?

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Was it terrorism?

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Was it a crime?

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Was it something more sinister?

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Because planes don't just disappear.

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The internet went crazy and so did every global government agency.

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To some, there's an obvious explanation.

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Right away, we know that the aircraft continues flying after the transponders go offline.

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The aircraft continues on its path and drops off of military radar.

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We know that because it's recorded on the military radar until 2.22 a.m.

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Take this radar information and combine it with the fact that the transponder was cut

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off, just prior to the aircraft veering off course.

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And that with the fact that there is no emergency distress call made and it creates a truly terrifying

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possibility.

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Was it potentially a murder suicide?

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Early in the investigation, they thought they should look very deep into the two men in

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the cockpit.

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Which is natural with this type of investigation.

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The question is, would anything motivate these two men to bring that aircraft down?

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In the cockpit, we have Captain Zahari Shah and First Officer Farikh Abdul Hamid.

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Farikh is not fully qualified yet on the 777.

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However, this is his last flight to qualify on the 777.

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This is a big deal.

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The realization of a lot of hard work.

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He's been with the airline for seven years.

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He's 27 years old.

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He's getting married soon.

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He has a long career in front of him.

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And as a result of that, the investigative bodies rule him out pretty quickly.

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They don't think he did it.

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Leaving only one other suspect in the cockpit.

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People who subscribe to the murder suicide theory believe that the Captain Zahari Shah

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deviated from the flight plan and intentionally crashed that airplane into the Indian Ocean.

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Sadly, taking everyone with him.

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Investigators dig deeper into Captain Shah and a search of his home turns up a disturbing

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clue.

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Zahari Shah had a very sophisticated simulator, an actual 777 simulator in his house.

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When the investigative bodies pull the data from it, it shows a variety of flight paths.

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We see that they run out over the Indian Ocean.

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They just stop.

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And ultimately, this is the path that MH370 takes.

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It seems as though Captain Shah had rehearsed this.

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So the flight path is somewhat telling in itself.

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Captain Shah is from the island of Penang.

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The final maneuver recorded by the military radar was northwest of Penang.

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Very close to it.

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It was a clear night, perfect visibility.

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And this turn gives him a perfect view, a final view of his home in Penang.

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Some people believe that when you finally decide to commit suicide, that person has a

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level of serenity.

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So some people believe that this final turn towards Penang was him waving goodbye to his

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home.

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While all of this evidence paints a damning picture for the pilot, it is not enough to

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close the case.

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So officially, MH370 is not ruled suicide by pilot.

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Because there's no suicide note, and they determined it's impossible to know what's

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in his mind.

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If the plane wasn't brought down by the pilot or co-pilot, could it be someone else on

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the inside?

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Investigators turn their attention to the crew.

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There's always another possibility that one of the cabin crew was trained and familiar

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with the aircraft and how to get into the cockpit.

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So the investigators looked into every one of these crew members.

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170 interviews looked into their bank accounts, social media accounts, their love life, everything

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that they could possibly look into, and they didn't find anything.

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Ultimately, there is no substantial evidence to tie the pilot or crew members to any wrong

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doing.

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There's absolutely no proof that this was a murder suicide.

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But authorities have this nagging problem.

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Why is there no stress call?

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What could have happened?

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After disappearing, the public is desperate for investigators to find Flight 370.

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But with so little evidence, they have their work cut out for them.

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One of the most common things that investigators can use to determine the cause of the crash

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is radio chatter.

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The 402 is radar contact at 18 miles, take speed 250, final brand is 23-0.

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When there's something unusual happening on the airplane, the flight crew usually gets

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on the radio about it.

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Whether there's an emergency, they see something out the window, or there's a passenger acting

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up, they usually radio that in.

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And in this case, there's no radio distress calls.

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We don't have that clue to help us.

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Unless the lack of a distress call is the clue.

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Based on what we know, I think the most logical explanation is that the airplane depressurized,

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causing everyone on board the aircraft to become unconscious and die from a lack of

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oxygen.

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The reason this airplane is flying off course and on an unusual path is because the pilot

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is not thinking clearly.

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This theory says that a terrible accident happened on board, disabling the crew and

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probably the passengers as well.

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So the problem with MH370 could have actually started before it left the ground.

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Just before takeoff, maintenance logs show that work was performed on MH370's oxygen

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system.

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The pressurization system in a 777 handles all the air that everyone breathes on board.

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And it also handles the cabin pressure.

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At a high altitude, the pressure outside the aircraft is very low, too low to sustain

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life.

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Inside the aircraft, it's pressurized and it's comfortable.

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So it's possible that maintenance fault could have resulted from the work they did on the

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pressurization system, essentially causing the aircraft not to pressurize properly.

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It's not terribly uncommon, but if it does happen, someone has to pressurize the aircraft

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typically using an emergency procedure.

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But what if they didn't?

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The last communication with air traffic control was made by Captain Zahari, good night, Malaysia

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00:17:47,260 --> 00:17:48,420
370.

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00:17:48,420 --> 00:17:51,940
And that means that he was not flying the aircraft.

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On a commercial airliner, there are two pilots, one who is doing the flying and the other

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00:17:56,380 --> 00:17:57,940
who's doing the monitoring.

251
00:17:57,940 --> 00:18:01,140
The pilot who is making the radio calls is not the pilot flying.

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00:18:01,140 --> 00:18:03,060
That's just the way it works.

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Every radio call from the time that Malaysia Flight 370 took off was made by the first

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00:18:07,700 --> 00:18:10,620
officer, Farik Abdul Hamid.

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00:18:10,620 --> 00:18:15,980
Captain Shah was handling the takeoff, getting out of Kuala Lumpur airspace, sort of the

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00:18:15,980 --> 00:18:18,260
more difficult parts of the flight.

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00:18:18,260 --> 00:18:21,460
Captain Shah was a highly experienced airline captain.

258
00:18:21,460 --> 00:18:25,780
He had 18,000 flight hours and he was only 53 years old.

259
00:18:25,780 --> 00:18:31,500
That's just 1,500 hours less than Captain Sully Sullenberger had when he famously landed

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00:18:31,500 --> 00:18:34,300
his airliner in the Hudson River.

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00:18:34,300 --> 00:18:39,420
After takeoff, we can assume that 38 minutes into the flight, when Captain Shah's voice

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00:18:39,420 --> 00:18:44,140
is on the radio, he has handed control of the aircraft to the first officer.

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00:18:44,140 --> 00:18:50,540
Remember, this was his last flight before becoming qualified on the aircraft.

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00:18:50,540 --> 00:18:54,940
Now we have the first officer who's operating an aircraft for which he's not yet fully

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00:18:54,940 --> 00:18:55,940
qualified.

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00:18:56,300 --> 00:19:02,980
We have 227 passengers on board, 12 crew members, and the aircraft is climbing.

267
00:19:02,980 --> 00:19:06,460
And we may have a maintenance problem, a pressurization issue.

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This is a dangerous situation.

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It can lead to hypoxia.

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00:19:11,860 --> 00:19:18,380
Hypoxia is a lack of oxygen in the body tissue and brain, which can occur in any aircraft

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00:19:18,380 --> 00:19:21,580
flying over 16,000 feet.

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With not enough oxygen feeding the brain, people can't do the simplest things, let

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00:19:26,260 --> 00:19:28,620
alone command an airliner.

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To be blunt, hypoxia makes you stupid, makes you unable to have rational thoughts.

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00:19:34,380 --> 00:19:41,300
At a cruising altitude of 35,000 feet, incapacitation due to hypoxia can occur in less than a minute.

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00:19:41,300 --> 00:19:46,300
The statistics indicate that for pilots, the time of useful consciousness could be as low

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00:19:46,300 --> 00:19:49,980
as 15 seconds.

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00:19:49,980 --> 00:19:56,060
Gradual onset hypoxia has caused numerous airline crashes over the years.

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00:19:56,060 --> 00:20:00,660
It's a deadly scenario with very little time to react.

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00:20:00,660 --> 00:20:05,380
There are a number of cases in which an airplane takes off and the pilots have failed to pressurize

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00:20:05,380 --> 00:20:10,420
the aircraft, or the aircraft simply doesn't pressurize.

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00:20:10,420 --> 00:20:16,180
And because of the nature of hypoxia, there are cases in which pilots got a cabin altitude

283
00:20:16,180 --> 00:20:20,220
warning horn, a warning that the aircraft was not properly pressurized, and they may

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00:20:20,220 --> 00:20:26,300
not respond to it correctly if their brains are already lacking oxygen.

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00:20:26,300 --> 00:20:30,420
Could this have happened aboard MH370?

286
00:20:30,420 --> 00:20:34,140
So at first it makes sense there is a lack of a Mayday call.

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00:20:34,140 --> 00:20:39,340
There's no call for help, but under hypoxic conditions, they might not even think they're

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00:20:39,340 --> 00:20:41,020
in danger.

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00:20:41,020 --> 00:20:45,380
The erratic flight also speaks to a hypoxic event.

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00:20:45,380 --> 00:20:50,780
The pilot turned the aircraft around, heading back to Kuala Lumpur as part of a response

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00:20:50,780 --> 00:20:52,780
to the emergency.

292
00:20:52,780 --> 00:20:58,900
According to radar, the plane makes one last turn.

293
00:20:58,900 --> 00:21:03,660
So the final move made by the first officer could have been to turn the aircraft toward

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00:21:03,660 --> 00:21:05,740
the runway that he knows.

295
00:21:05,740 --> 00:21:12,260
That airport is Langkawi International, set on an island just west of the Malaysian

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00:21:12,260 --> 00:21:13,700
peninsula.

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00:21:13,700 --> 00:21:15,740
This is where he did his flight training.

298
00:21:15,740 --> 00:21:17,420
He's familiar with the terrain.

299
00:21:17,420 --> 00:21:22,460
He knows that the runway is long enough to land a fully loaded 777.

300
00:21:22,460 --> 00:21:28,420
Instead of landing, the plane continues to fly for 230 miles.

301
00:21:28,420 --> 00:21:33,340
So at this point, we think that both crew are incapacitated by hypoxia.

302
00:21:33,340 --> 00:21:36,780
They've passed out, then the autopilot takes over.

303
00:21:36,780 --> 00:21:42,020
The aircraft is carrying 239 people, who are most likely dead.

304
00:21:42,020 --> 00:21:47,620
And they are flying until that airplane runs out of fuel.

305
00:21:47,620 --> 00:21:51,380
Not everyone is convinced the cabin depressurized.

306
00:21:51,380 --> 00:21:57,380
Could it be something more sinister?

307
00:21:57,380 --> 00:22:02,780
When Malaysia Flight 370 goes missing, investigators from nine countries join the search, including

308
00:22:02,780 --> 00:22:04,540
the United States.

309
00:22:04,540 --> 00:22:11,220
Their biggest challenge is the lack of evidence, almost all of which lies on that missing airplane.

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00:22:11,220 --> 00:22:16,700
Several months into their search, authorities get a treasure trove of new data.

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00:22:16,700 --> 00:22:20,620
And it changes the course of the investigation.

312
00:22:20,620 --> 00:22:23,340
They hear from a company called MRSAT.

313
00:22:23,340 --> 00:22:26,540
They handle satellite data for commercial airlines.

314
00:22:26,540 --> 00:22:31,380
Things like satellite phones in the back of your seat to make calls, TV and entertainment

315
00:22:31,380 --> 00:22:32,620
systems.

316
00:22:32,620 --> 00:22:37,100
These systems are in constant communication back and forth with the satellite system.

317
00:22:37,100 --> 00:22:41,180
It's pretty much just checking in.

318
00:22:41,180 --> 00:22:46,260
While MRSAT has records of this communication, first thing that happens is the airplane logs

319
00:22:46,260 --> 00:22:52,900
in to the MRSAT system at midnight Malaysia time, which is expected right before takeoff.

320
00:22:52,900 --> 00:22:58,260
Then the satellite system checks in with the airplane on an hourly basis, using automatic

321
00:22:58,260 --> 00:23:00,180
pings.

322
00:23:00,180 --> 00:23:03,540
It checks in to see, hey, are you there?

323
00:23:03,540 --> 00:23:06,540
And we call that a handshake.

324
00:23:06,540 --> 00:23:12,780
While the aircraft transponder is offline, the MRSAT communication system keeps going.

325
00:23:12,780 --> 00:23:16,660
It takes months to analyze the data, and at the time they didn't have the technology to

326
00:23:16,660 --> 00:23:18,420
make full sense of it.

327
00:23:18,420 --> 00:23:23,020
But then when they finally figure out the MRSAT data, guess what?

328
00:23:23,020 --> 00:23:26,260
It shows something incredible.

329
00:23:26,260 --> 00:23:31,540
Previously, the last known contact of the airplane was 2.22 a.m., when it disappears

330
00:23:31,540 --> 00:23:33,740
from military radar.

331
00:23:33,740 --> 00:23:38,580
And investigators assume that the plane crashed not too long after.

332
00:23:38,580 --> 00:23:44,060
The MRSAT data shows seven automated pings after 2.22 a.m.

333
00:23:44,060 --> 00:23:48,580
And those pings go all the way until 8.19 a.m.

334
00:23:48,580 --> 00:23:55,540
If the plane continues flying for six more hours, where did it go?

335
00:23:55,540 --> 00:24:00,500
So the technology at the time didn't allow them to get a specific location using the

336
00:24:00,500 --> 00:24:02,220
MRSAT ping.

337
00:24:02,220 --> 00:24:07,780
All they know is that the plane is within a range of a certain satellite.

338
00:24:07,780 --> 00:24:14,900
So they calculate that to cover a large area off the western coast of Australia, which

339
00:24:14,900 --> 00:24:20,300
is way farther south than anywhere they'd previously looked.

340
00:24:20,300 --> 00:24:28,620
This means that MH370 turned south and flew for six hours into the middle of nowhere.

341
00:24:28,620 --> 00:24:32,380
Some theorists say that it's not on autopilot.

342
00:24:32,380 --> 00:24:36,900
And why fly around for so long if you intend to kill yourself?

343
00:24:36,900 --> 00:24:42,660
So if the plane isn't flying itself and the pilots are not committing suicide, that leaves

344
00:24:42,660 --> 00:24:45,100
one other option.

345
00:24:45,100 --> 00:24:50,660
A passenger took control of the aircraft.

346
00:24:50,660 --> 00:24:53,540
There are 227 passengers on board.

347
00:24:53,540 --> 00:24:56,140
Any of them could be responsible.

348
00:24:56,140 --> 00:25:02,300
In the world post-September 11th, we look very carefully at who's on a plane.

349
00:25:02,300 --> 00:25:07,980
As they dig deeper, investigators realize not all of the passengers are who they claim

350
00:25:07,980 --> 00:25:10,300
to be.

351
00:25:10,300 --> 00:25:15,900
So they checked everybody's info and then there was this red flag.

352
00:25:15,900 --> 00:25:21,340
Two people had boarded using stolen passports.

353
00:25:21,340 --> 00:25:23,860
One Italian and one Australian.

354
00:25:23,940 --> 00:25:25,660
These two guys checked in.

355
00:25:25,660 --> 00:25:30,540
For some reason, the passports were not discovered by Interpol.

356
00:25:30,540 --> 00:25:36,220
So we have two men on board this airplane that are trying to hide something clearly

357
00:25:36,220 --> 00:25:38,300
and we didn't know about it.

358
00:25:38,300 --> 00:25:40,060
We don't know who they are.

359
00:25:40,060 --> 00:25:42,300
Fake names, fake passports.

360
00:25:42,300 --> 00:25:44,700
These guys could be anybody.

361
00:25:44,700 --> 00:25:48,100
So fortunately, it's not 1950.

362
00:25:48,100 --> 00:25:49,820
It's 2014.

363
00:25:49,820 --> 00:25:53,340
And there's a large number of surveillance everywhere.

364
00:25:53,340 --> 00:25:56,260
We can trace these guys' steps.

365
00:25:56,260 --> 00:26:00,700
The police found out these are two friends using stolen passports.

366
00:26:00,700 --> 00:26:06,220
Turns out these two passports were stolen in Thailand about two years before.

367
00:26:06,220 --> 00:26:10,100
They bought a one-way ticket through a pay phone in Thailand.

368
00:26:10,100 --> 00:26:14,940
From Thailand, they entered Malaysia using their real passport.

369
00:26:14,940 --> 00:26:17,300
So now we know who they are.

370
00:26:17,300 --> 00:26:20,980
The men have a valid reason to hide their identities.

371
00:26:20,980 --> 00:26:27,780
These are two Iranian refugees, 19 and 29, seeking asylum in Beijing.

372
00:26:27,780 --> 00:26:30,540
They don't have any knowledge about airplanes.

373
00:26:30,540 --> 00:26:36,460
So with those maneuvers that MH370 went through, whoever was doing it knew what they were doing

374
00:26:36,460 --> 00:26:37,460
in that cockpit.

375
00:26:37,460 --> 00:26:40,140
So it turns out these guys were not really suspects.

376
00:26:41,900 --> 00:26:48,340
Investigators also believe the culprit knows how to work the plane's internal systems,

377
00:26:48,340 --> 00:26:49,980
like the transponders.

378
00:26:49,980 --> 00:26:52,820
There's a passenger on board who might fit the bill.

379
00:26:52,820 --> 00:26:56,660
He's a flight engineer from Switzerland.

380
00:26:56,660 --> 00:27:04,540
The Boeing 777-200 has access to the avionics bay, which is under the cockpit.

381
00:27:04,540 --> 00:27:08,260
That's in the forward first-class cabin.

382
00:27:08,260 --> 00:27:11,860
And it's a small lock to get there.

383
00:27:11,860 --> 00:27:13,220
This is where the flight computers are.

384
00:27:13,220 --> 00:27:16,300
This is where the pressurization and everything is.

385
00:27:16,300 --> 00:27:20,460
So if you could get access to this room, you could cause serious harm to an aircraft in

386
00:27:20,460 --> 00:27:21,620
flight.

387
00:27:21,620 --> 00:27:24,180
Would a flight engineer know about this?

388
00:27:24,180 --> 00:27:25,260
Possibly.

389
00:27:26,620 --> 00:27:29,980
But does the flight engineer have a motive?

390
00:27:29,980 --> 00:27:34,740
When we look into this person, we find that he has a clean background.

391
00:27:34,740 --> 00:27:37,180
He works on completely different type of aircraft.

392
00:27:37,180 --> 00:27:39,340
He works on corporate jets.

393
00:27:39,340 --> 00:27:41,740
He's probably not a suspect.

394
00:27:41,740 --> 00:27:48,020
With no evidence to implicate any passengers, the search goes cold for three years.

395
00:27:48,020 --> 00:27:52,020
Remember that proving what happened is all about the evidence.

396
00:27:52,020 --> 00:27:56,740
And there is none until suddenly something washes up.

397
00:27:56,740 --> 00:27:58,820
It's 2017.

398
00:27:58,820 --> 00:28:02,940
There's been almost no lead from MH370.

399
00:28:02,940 --> 00:28:08,180
But one day, somebody's walking on the beach and makes an incredible discovery.

400
00:28:08,180 --> 00:28:16,220
Over 6,500 miles from the Malaysian airport, wreckage appears on several remote islands.

401
00:28:16,220 --> 00:28:21,820
So now we finally have some hard evidence that we could look at that are, that were

402
00:28:21,820 --> 00:28:24,940
the pieces of that airplane.

403
00:28:24,940 --> 00:28:32,700
For three years, after Malaysia flight 370 disappears, there's no sign of the actual

404
00:28:32,700 --> 00:28:34,940
aircraft.

405
00:28:34,940 --> 00:28:41,180
Until 2017, when debris begins to surface.

406
00:28:41,180 --> 00:28:46,860
So now we're getting some of these chunks that are washed ashore over the East Coast

407
00:28:46,860 --> 00:28:51,340
of Africa, Mozambique and Reuni Island.

408
00:28:51,340 --> 00:28:57,260
In all, 33 pieces are found in six different countries.

409
00:28:57,260 --> 00:29:00,300
They even found this big piece.

410
00:29:00,300 --> 00:29:06,820
It's a flapper on unique to the triple seven that had a serial number on it that matches

411
00:29:06,820 --> 00:29:08,380
MH370.

412
00:29:08,380 --> 00:29:10,340
So it's got to be from that airplane.

413
00:29:10,340 --> 00:29:13,940
The parts also hold an important clue.

414
00:29:13,940 --> 00:29:17,820
There was some scorch marks on the debris.

415
00:29:17,820 --> 00:29:24,500
And that tells me that they may have been a fire.

416
00:29:24,500 --> 00:29:30,820
What we know for sure is that the transponder went off 38 minutes into the flight.

417
00:29:30,820 --> 00:29:35,420
Maybe it is caused by the fire on board.

418
00:29:35,420 --> 00:29:37,620
Fires happen for a variety of reasons.

419
00:29:37,620 --> 00:29:43,780
Electrical, mechanical, maybe something in the cargo hold or something in the cabin.

420
00:29:43,780 --> 00:29:52,180
MH370 was carrying about 500 pounds of lithium ion batteries in the forward cargo hold.

421
00:29:52,180 --> 00:30:01,420
And we know this is more than enough to possibly bring down an aircraft, as has happened before.

422
00:30:01,420 --> 00:30:08,420
On September 3rd, 2010, UPS Flight 6 takes off from Dubai International Airport.

423
00:30:08,420 --> 00:30:16,900
This was a massive 747-400 freighter UPS piloted by Captain Lampy and First Officer Matthew

424
00:30:16,900 --> 00:30:17,900
Bell.

425
00:30:18,340 --> 00:30:23,900
138 miles into that flight, the cockpit fills with smoke.

426
00:30:23,900 --> 00:30:25,940
At this point it's chaos.

427
00:30:25,940 --> 00:30:28,900
It's not smoke like from a campfire.

428
00:30:28,900 --> 00:30:32,940
This is thick smoke, so thick you can't see through it.

429
00:30:32,940 --> 00:30:35,700
They had no chance.

430
00:30:35,700 --> 00:30:42,420
First Officer Lampy disconnected the autopilot, perhaps trying to make a quick turn towards

431
00:30:42,420 --> 00:30:43,720
Dubai.

432
00:30:43,720 --> 00:30:50,040
And when he did that, he realized the primary flight control system had failed because of

433
00:30:50,040 --> 00:30:51,240
the fire.

434
00:30:51,240 --> 00:30:54,080
And now he couldn't quite fly it properly.

435
00:30:54,080 --> 00:31:01,660
The captain got out of his seat to get a fire extinguisher, unfortunately succumbed by the

436
00:31:01,660 --> 00:31:06,960
fumes and smoke and fire immediately.

437
00:31:06,960 --> 00:31:13,560
Bell couldn't see his instruments, but he was given a heading towards Dubai Airport,

438
00:31:13,560 --> 00:31:16,240
runway 12 left.

439
00:31:16,240 --> 00:31:20,400
Sadly he crashes a few miles on the other side of the runway.

440
00:31:20,400 --> 00:31:23,760
Both pilots were killed.

441
00:31:23,760 --> 00:31:31,640
The subsequent investigation discovered that there was a pallet with 81,000 lithium ion

442
00:31:31,640 --> 00:31:34,800
batteries on board that freighter.

443
00:31:34,800 --> 00:31:37,840
Lithium ion batteries are extremely volatile.

444
00:31:37,840 --> 00:31:42,960
Even the ones that you have in your phone, they have high amount of charge in them, but

445
00:31:42,960 --> 00:31:44,840
very thin walls.

446
00:31:44,840 --> 00:31:49,560
Because of the thin walls on these batteries, if one of them catches fire, it's very easy

447
00:31:49,560 --> 00:31:54,520
to propagate into the other batteries adjacent to it.

448
00:31:54,520 --> 00:32:02,960
In rare cases, lithium ion batteries actually combust and almost like a mini explosion.

449
00:32:02,960 --> 00:32:09,120
The FAA has recorded 340 airplane incidents involving lithium batteries.

450
00:32:09,120 --> 00:32:14,480
In 2019, regulations were put in place to safeguard passenger planes.

451
00:32:14,480 --> 00:32:20,560
It is now prohibited to carry lithium ion batteries in passenger airliners and in the

452
00:32:20,560 --> 00:32:26,080
cargo compartment of an airliner and very limited amount on freighters.

453
00:32:26,080 --> 00:32:32,880
But that was years after pieces of MH370 began to wash up on remote shores.

454
00:32:32,880 --> 00:32:37,640
So in the case of MH370, you have some charred wreckage.

455
00:32:37,640 --> 00:32:43,360
You also have a large amount of fuel in the form of lithium batteries on board.

456
00:32:43,360 --> 00:32:48,000
What about the unusual flight path and erratic maneuvers?

457
00:32:48,000 --> 00:32:53,520
A lot of people are questioning that sharp left turn that could also be explained by

458
00:32:53,520 --> 00:32:54,520
the fire.

459
00:32:54,520 --> 00:33:01,200
We're trained that in case of a fire, what you do is you immediately get off the airway.

460
00:33:01,200 --> 00:33:05,000
And at first, that's what it appears that MH370 does.

461
00:33:05,000 --> 00:33:08,280
Your next step is to find an airport to land.

462
00:33:08,280 --> 00:33:13,120
Some of these sporadic turns could be possible by trying to figure out where are they going

463
00:33:13,120 --> 00:33:17,960
to land this airplane as soon as possible.

464
00:33:17,960 --> 00:33:22,880
You have to either put out this fire or get that airplane on the ground as fast as you

465
00:33:22,880 --> 00:33:26,280
can.

466
00:33:26,280 --> 00:33:32,760
Usually they say it's between 12 to 14 minutes to get that airplane from altitude down to

467
00:33:32,760 --> 00:33:34,400
the ground.

468
00:33:34,400 --> 00:33:41,480
And airplane that is designed to basically glide, it is very hard to get it on the ground

469
00:33:41,480 --> 00:33:43,800
that quickly.

470
00:33:43,800 --> 00:33:50,000
Unless if you literally nose dive.

471
00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:55,560
People always ask why there was no Mayday call, why they didn't call on a radio.

472
00:33:55,920 --> 00:34:01,800
Well, first of all, the aircraft may not have been capable at that point of calling for

473
00:34:01,800 --> 00:34:02,800
help.

474
00:34:02,800 --> 00:34:06,240
The radios or the communication systems could have been knocked out.

475
00:34:06,240 --> 00:34:12,600
Additionally, you need to understand what it's like to fly in a cockpit or a cabin that

476
00:34:12,600 --> 00:34:15,200
is full of dense smoke.

477
00:34:15,200 --> 00:34:21,200
If your car is on fire or your truck or your boat, you can step out and jump out.

478
00:34:21,200 --> 00:34:24,080
Unfortunately, you can't do that out of an aircraft.

479
00:34:24,080 --> 00:34:25,080
There's no help.

480
00:34:25,120 --> 00:34:28,680
The fire department is not coming.

481
00:34:28,680 --> 00:34:30,520
The crew is on their own.

482
00:34:30,520 --> 00:34:36,080
So what they would be doing is working to put out the fire.

483
00:34:36,080 --> 00:34:42,840
Triple seven has a very sophisticated onboard fire detection and fire suppression system.

484
00:34:42,840 --> 00:34:49,320
But unfortunately, it was not designed to fight a lithium ion battery.

485
00:34:49,320 --> 00:34:57,400
So when there's nothing else to do, the other choice is to climb the aircraft and starve

486
00:34:57,400 --> 00:34:59,680
the fire of the oxygen.

487
00:34:59,680 --> 00:35:04,200
But the problem with that is the fire needs oxygen to breathe.

488
00:35:04,200 --> 00:35:07,000
And so do the folks in the back.

489
00:35:07,000 --> 00:35:09,960
It's a gamble.

490
00:35:09,960 --> 00:35:13,240
With the fire run out of oxygen first or the people.

491
00:35:13,240 --> 00:35:17,280
If you don't climb, everyone is going to burn alive.

492
00:35:17,280 --> 00:35:23,600
It's very possible that everybody was dead long before it crashed into the water.

493
00:35:23,600 --> 00:35:29,000
And perhaps that was the autopilot flying the airplane and no one was in control till

494
00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:31,600
eventually runs out of fuel.

495
00:35:31,600 --> 00:35:37,440
But this evidence doesn't close the case on Malaysia Flight 370.

496
00:35:37,440 --> 00:35:42,880
We have only a few pieces of this airplane that weighs almost a million pounds.

497
00:35:42,880 --> 00:35:45,240
So we can make educated guesses.

498
00:35:45,240 --> 00:35:47,000
We can keep digging.

499
00:35:47,000 --> 00:35:48,760
We can make assumptions.

500
00:35:48,760 --> 00:35:51,640
But the truth is we don't have an answer.

501
00:35:51,640 --> 00:35:57,560
In fact, some experts are highly skeptical about this physical evidence.

502
00:35:57,560 --> 00:36:02,560
Some people look at patterns and the incredible amount of time that passed before the wreckage

503
00:36:02,560 --> 00:36:04,120
washed up.

504
00:36:04,120 --> 00:36:10,280
And they wonder, could this evidence have been planted?

505
00:36:10,280 --> 00:36:18,720
On January 17th, 2017, the official search for Malaysia Flight 370 is suspended.

506
00:36:18,720 --> 00:36:25,920
Despite a sweep of 46,000 square miles of the Indian Ocean seabed, the rest of the plane

507
00:36:25,920 --> 00:36:27,360
isn't found.

508
00:36:27,360 --> 00:36:35,640
So the official search, which took hundreds of millions of dollars and years to conduct,

509
00:36:35,640 --> 00:36:37,840
came up empty.

510
00:36:38,200 --> 00:36:42,560
According to some theorists, the search might have been in the wrong area.

511
00:36:42,560 --> 00:36:47,720
The officials and most of the media convinced themselves that the satellite data could only

512
00:36:47,720 --> 00:36:50,400
mean one thing, that the plane went south.

513
00:36:50,400 --> 00:36:51,560
But they were wrong.

514
00:36:51,560 --> 00:36:54,840
There's another possible interpretation of the data.

515
00:36:54,840 --> 00:36:58,680
The reason that search officials thought that the plane must have gone to the southern Indian

516
00:36:58,680 --> 00:37:03,800
Ocean was because of satellite metadata.

517
00:37:04,760 --> 00:37:12,120
MH370 remained visible to ground-based radar systems until about 2.30 in the morning.

518
00:37:12,120 --> 00:37:19,480
After that, until 8.19 in the morning, the only clues are these satellite data pings.

519
00:37:19,480 --> 00:37:23,960
They're able to calculate the distance of the plane from the satellite using these pings

520
00:37:23,960 --> 00:37:26,760
and how it travels through time and space.

521
00:37:26,760 --> 00:37:31,920
The time delay between the satellite sending its signal and the plane replying allows you

522
00:37:31,920 --> 00:37:35,520
to calculate how far away the plane is from the satellite.

523
00:37:35,520 --> 00:37:40,080
But that only tells you one part of the story.

524
00:37:40,080 --> 00:37:44,520
The problem with those pings is it's really challenging to identify where the airplane

525
00:37:44,520 --> 00:37:45,520
exactly flew.

526
00:37:45,520 --> 00:37:50,360
In fact, at the time of the crash, we didn't have the technology to fully analyze the data

527
00:37:50,360 --> 00:37:52,880
that was provided by MRSA.

528
00:37:52,880 --> 00:37:54,840
And then we have an airplane that's on the move.

529
00:37:54,840 --> 00:37:58,600
We don't know how fast it's going, and we don't know how high it is.

530
00:37:58,600 --> 00:38:05,960
These calculations have to be within milliseconds, or you could be off thousands of miles.

531
00:38:05,960 --> 00:38:11,520
Once they did their calculations, they came to the conclusion that this data meant unequivocally

532
00:38:11,520 --> 00:38:15,920
that the plane could only have gone to the southern Indian Ocean.

533
00:38:15,920 --> 00:38:20,720
But there's another possible route.

534
00:38:20,720 --> 00:38:27,840
It's taken years to figure out the math here, but the data also aligns with a northern arc.

535
00:38:28,040 --> 00:38:32,200
Following the northern arc, the aircraft would have passed through northern Thailand

536
00:38:32,200 --> 00:38:34,240
and then central Asia.

537
00:38:34,240 --> 00:38:41,200
If the plane did fly along the northern route, the final ping puts it over central Kazakhstan.

538
00:38:41,200 --> 00:38:53,240
If MH370 went to Kazakhstan, it opens up a frightening possibility.

539
00:38:53,240 --> 00:38:58,720
This theory says that terrorists hijacked the aircraft, taken to Kazakhstan, killed

540
00:38:58,720 --> 00:39:06,440
the passengers, and then they could have refueled and continued to anywhere within Russia.

541
00:39:06,440 --> 00:39:11,440
If the plane went north, it could have landed safely.

542
00:39:11,440 --> 00:39:16,640
It takes a lot of runway to land a big plane like the 777, and there aren't a lot of long

543
00:39:16,640 --> 00:39:20,720
runways in the remote central part of Kazakhstan.

544
00:39:20,920 --> 00:39:27,040
It turns out that there is a runway not too far away that is a suitable runway for a 777

545
00:39:27,040 --> 00:39:28,320
to land on.

546
00:39:28,320 --> 00:39:35,280
The place is called Yubilani runway, and it's part of the former Soviet military base.

547
00:39:35,280 --> 00:39:41,760
The big question is, did anyone on the plane have ties to Russia?

548
00:39:41,760 --> 00:39:47,480
In first class, there's a Russian national named Nikolai Brodsky, and he's sitting about

549
00:39:47,480 --> 00:39:54,160
15 feet from an unlocked hatch, which contains the electronic brain that controls all of

550
00:39:54,160 --> 00:39:59,440
the flight surfaces of the plane and all the communications with the ground.

551
00:39:59,440 --> 00:40:06,080
And in economy class, you have two Soviet Army veterans sitting directly under the box

552
00:40:06,080 --> 00:40:08,160
that makes the satellite ping.

553
00:40:08,160 --> 00:40:13,440
It's entirely possible that somebody took control of the plane, killed everyone on board,

554
00:40:13,440 --> 00:40:20,520
flew off into perfect safety, refueled, went and hid the plane somewhere, and got away

555
00:40:20,520 --> 00:40:22,040
scot-free.

556
00:40:22,040 --> 00:40:28,360
But if MH370 didn't crash, where did the debris come from?

557
00:40:28,360 --> 00:40:33,640
Some theorists say pieces were taken off the aircraft, thrown into the Indian Ocean to

558
00:40:33,640 --> 00:40:34,840
throw off investigators.

559
00:40:34,840 --> 00:40:41,560
The idea that these pieces might have been planted by perpetrators would explain why

560
00:40:41,920 --> 00:40:46,320
No debris was spotted from the aerial searches over the area where the plane was presumed

561
00:40:46,320 --> 00:40:47,320
to be missing.

562
00:40:47,320 --> 00:40:52,360
For months, was MH370 an accident, or was it a crime?

563
00:40:52,360 --> 00:40:58,040
A perfect crime.

564
00:40:58,040 --> 00:41:04,400
Despite the end of the official investigation in 2018, there remain countless private citizens

565
00:41:04,400 --> 00:41:07,720
dedicated to solving this mystery.

566
00:41:07,720 --> 00:41:13,160
Around the world, scientists, journalists, nonprofits, even major corporations continue

567
00:41:13,160 --> 00:41:19,080
to hunt for answers about what really happened to Malaysia Flight 370, answers that will

568
00:41:19,080 --> 00:41:23,840
hopefully bring closure to the families of those on board.

569
00:41:23,840 --> 00:41:25,640
I'm Lawrence Fishburne.

570
00:41:25,640 --> 00:41:29,040
Thank you for watching History's Greatest Mysteries.