By David Futrelle
With no plausible official explanation for the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 five years ago, and the failures of the assorted attempts to find what survives of the plane in the deep, dark waters of the southern Indian ocean, you may have assumed, as I did, that we would never know what happened to the mystery plane, or why.
In a must-read story in the latest Atlantic magazine, William Langewiesche argues that — despite the bungled investigation of the matter by the corrupt and inept Malaysian government, and the assorted roadblocks government officials have put in the way of other investigators — we actually have a very good idea not only of what transpired in the final hours of that doomed flight, but also why it may have happened.
It looks, in short, like a murder-suicide by an aggrieved middle-aged pilot, depressed and angry over the dissolution of his marriage and possibly also by his inability to attract the attention of several younger women he had become at least slightly obsessed with.
Usually, these sorts of murder-suicides — which are shockingly common — involve a man taking the life of a woman who has left him or otherwise threatened his sense of control over the relationship, and possibly a few other family members, before taking his own life. (Murder-suicides involving women as the murderers are rare.) In the case of MH370, it appears the alleged murderer took out 227 passengers and 12 crew in his act of “revenge” on the world.
Looking skeptically at the official Malaysian government report, and largely ignoring the vast array of spurious conspiracy theories that have sprung up around the plane’s disappearance, Langewiesche examines the sparse but revealing electronic and physical clues left behind by the plane as it veered sharply off its original flightplan and then, after a series of puzzling maneuvers, ultimately flew six more hours in the wrong direction until it ended up crashing violently into the ocean thousands of miles from its intended destination. He concludes, confidently, that the plane
did not catch on fire yet stay in the air for all that time. No, it did not become a “ghost flight” able to navigate and switch its systems off and then back on. No, it was not shot down after long consideration by nefarious national powers who lingered on its tail before pulling the trigger. And no, it is not somewhere in the South China Sea, nor is it sitting intact in some camouflaged hangar in Central Asia. The one thing all of these explanations have in common is that they contradict the authentic information investigators do possess.
What did happen? It appears the plane was deliberately taken down, almost certainly by one of the two men installed in the cockpit at the beginning of the flight — either the pilot, 53-year-old Captain Zaharie Ahmad or his co-pilot, 27-year-old Fariq Abdul Hamid. (There is zero evidence of a hijacking, and Langewiesche argues convincingly that it would have been exceedingly unlikely.)
“[I]t is difficult to see the co-pilot as the perpetrator.” Langewiesche writes.
He was young and optimistic, and reportedly planning to get married. He had no history of any sort of trouble, dissent, or doubts.
But Zaharie, the pilot,
was often lonely and sad. His wife had moved out … By his own admission to friends, he spent a lot of time pacing empty rooms waiting for the days between flights to go by. … He is known to have established a wistful relationship with a married woman and her three children … and to have obsessed over two young internet models … for whom he left Facebook comments that apparently did not elicit responses. … Zaharie seems to have become somewhat disconnected from his earlier, well-established life.
What happened that awful night? Langewiesche suggests that shortly before turning the plane around a hour into the flight, Zaharie either killed or incapacitated his co-pilot, then depressurized the cabin before sending the plane climbing to 40,000 feet in a deliberate attempt to kill the passengers and the rest of the crew.
Langewiesche paints quite a chilling scene of what likely happened:
An intentional depressurization would have been an obvious way—and probably the only way—to subdue a potentially unruly cabin in an airplane that was going to remain in flight for hours to come. In the cabin, the effect would have gone unnoticed but for the sudden appearance of the drop-down oxygen masks and perhaps the cabin crew’s use of the few portable units of similar design. None of those cabin masks was intended for more than about 15 minutes of use during emergency descents to altitudes below 13,000 feet; they would have been of no value at all cruising at 40,000 feet. The cabin occupants would have become incapacitated within a couple of minutes, lost consciousness, and gently died without any choking or gasping for air. The scene would have been dimly lit by the emergency lights, with the dead belted into their seats, their faces nestled in the worthless oxygen masks dangling on tubes from the ceiling.
Zaharie, or whoever was flying the plane, had access to much more effective oxygen masks with hours worth of supplies; after several hours, he could have re-pressurized the plane, confident that he was the only one left alive. Or he could have taken the mask off after putting the plane on its final course and turning on the autopilot, drifting into unconsciousness and ultimately death long before the plane hit the water.
As Langewiesche is well aware, it’s hard to believe that any pilot would do such a monstrous thing. But, as he points out, there have been several similar cases over the last 22 years, including one that seems to have been inspired by MH370.
In 2015, a year after the disappearance of MH370, a young co-pilot named Andreas Lubitz seems to have deliberately crashed Germanwings Flight 9525 into a mountain in the French Alps after locking the pilot out of the plane’s cabin. As I noted at the time, he was known for his explosive rage — and had just been dumped by his girlfriend, and though he was clearly not an incel, he was quickly adopted as a “legitimate SLAYER” and “incel hero” by the regulars on the incel-centric SlutHate forum (which has since morphed into Lookism). Now that Langewiesche has highlighted the romantic and sexual rejection that may have triggered Zaharie’s alleged murderous act, I wonder if the incels will embrace him as well. (If they don’t, it will likely be because of his age; incels like their “heroes” young.)
As I noted in my posts on Lubitz, men often react poorly to romantic rejection, sometimes lashing out with violence — sometimes as the rejecter herself, other times at the world at large. Roughly a third of all female murder victims in the United States are killed by their exes, and “murder/suicides” in which an aggrieved man kills his partner or an ex-partner are so common in the United States that they’re rarely reported as anything more than local news unless, say, an entire family is killed.
Or, in this case, an entire plane full of people.
Toxic masculinity kills.
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oh and a high school senior cant date a 7th grader, that’s assault, the other high school kids would be mature enough to call that out as creepy.
puts on MC Hammer, cranks it up to 11
I am not a man.I am agender. But yes I have a temper sometimes. There are people of every gender with short fuses.
This is a public forum without private messages. If you don’t wish to talk to me, fine. But since when do you have to “consent” to @ someone???
@BTGG:
…
common courtesy?
I mean, really, if someone doesn’t want to talk to you, insisting on talking to them unless there is a seriously good outside reason for doing so (like, say, serving legal papers) just seems like bullying behaviour.
Sure there aren’t private messages here. It’s not even like Discord where @-ing someone automatically flags a public message to them as well. But still, what skin is it off your nose to just not do it when asked not to?
Alright I’ll try not to be such a grouch.
Except you tell me to F off, meaning you dont consider this a space where it is ok for me to talk, but that you are entitled to talk AT me, while I tell you NO, and you expect me to be intimidated into silently submitting to that.
As a trans person who isnt acting like a lying troll, forgive me if I attributed that behavior to the a patriachal entitlement, yes some women and non-binary people imitate that behavior, you’ll never have male privilege by imitating it tho, so have fun bootlicking for your oppressors.
You arent being grouchy, you’re deliberately trying to cause trouble as your sole purpose for being here.
When a toxic person wont leave me alone I do try to just walk away, so maybe Ill just dip out on this one for a minute.
Does “stop being a grouch” include not accusing women of being jealous of other women for commenting on trends in media? Or arguing that a 13 year old can consent to sex?
I’ve banned BTGG.
@Mark
I’m sorta butting in, but I feel like this matters:
Actually, personality disorders cover quite a bit more than that. As a person who has a personality disorder, I don’t appreciate being labelled with being “a first class a-hole.”
Apology accepted. You might want to read up on how to do a proper one, though.
Rule of thumb: Say “I’m sorry that…” not “I’m sorry if…”
I feel like your main problem is that you’re saying whatever you’re thinking… even if it’s on a subject where you don’t actually know the facts. This tends to be frustrating to people who do know and it makes you come off as disingenuous. This, I think, is the reason for your reception here.
I also think you can probably do a lot better. People here may be quick to respond when they disagree, but they’re also quick to forgive people who just screwed up and are willing to make an honest effort.
I recommend an approach of reading more than writing, and asking more than answering. That will probably put you on the right path.
Thanks, David!
thanks David
Im sorry I assumed that person’s gender regardless. Coulda been chiller also. fwiw Ive had my toxic masculinity moments and it doesnt invalidate my gender, your gender is valid regardless of how you act. Cis and trans people of any gender can act any type of way. Cissexist assumptions suck.
It sucks to take a beating in a comment section bc you said something crappy. I would be way more compassionate to that if I hadnt been played so many times.
It isnt at all one or two individual’s issue. Its a societal issue. We may be addressing one person angrily, but really our anger is at the system and that person is just the most recent person to put some more straw on that camel’s back.
Fact is, Ive been nicer than I was here, or been silent, and it didn’t exactly help anyway. Id love to not have to be as tough as Ive gotten, but Im not sure I woulda survived what Ive survived. No one wants to have to call this stuff out, we just feel we have to, to protect our communities.
So just dont take it personally, and try to learn something. I garantee you literally everyone who ever calls you out has also messed up and been called out.
…. ok so…
Lukas you touched my heart. Wanted to give some support;
People with personality disorders are valid, normal, good, equal humans who deserve your respect equally and you cant know who they are based on that diagnosis. It sucks they take so much abuse.
I for one dont care if you say “oh no not YOUR disorder, I mean THOSE people”, bc we are all a community, its all ableism baby.
It’s pretty easy to say “all people who do X have a disorder”, because if any people who do X have no such diagnosis, you can just say they secretly have a disorder. You can always feel you were right because you dont need evidence on a case by case basis. It’s like a reversal of the No True Scotsman fallacy. No matter how neurotypical a person is, if they do X, they are secretly ND.
So in the end, all bad behavior can be blamed on an oppressed group, no matter who does it or why. If they’re a privileged white man, just call them secretly disabled and be done.
And we wonder why people wont go get help for their mental health.
I want the ND people here to know, you are just as valid and worthy and good as everyone else- you are an individual, you are not that strawman of your Dx. You deserve equal respect.
Also, like, me telling you, dont @ me, I dont wanna debate, is basically my way of trying to keep it chill. I feel bad about getting mad, but like, thats why I was trying to extricate myself in the first place.
Conversations should absolutely be treated as requiring some consent at some point (at least) imo. At some point you do enter into literal harassment w/o that consent.
I just want to say thanks to David for banning BTGG, and I sure won’t miss them or anything they ever said to or about me.
i thought this was about MH17 – it would make more sense really. they recently named 4 suspects and also that there will be a full report and trial at the Hague including more suspects. I think most will be tried “in absentia” and some are already dead in suspicious circumstances (silenced for what they knew). it is no secret that it was shot down by Russian military, not even so called Ukrainian separatists. I hope there so be justice soon, but it is bitter.
(note this is also a test to change my name here)
@anon
I hear what you are saying and agree, but I also don’t think you need to spend too much time feeling bad about misgendering BTGG: I’m nearly certain they said it just to troll you. Otherwise they would have gotten angry about it in other threads where I gendered them as male.
But if it was true, then I apologise too. And congratulations to them, managing to be the first agender person I ever met that defended every other patriarchal norm except binary genders. Truly, life is full of wonders.
As Ohlman put it, I’m a long way from convicting anyone on this evidence. There are other explanations that fit the data about equally well.
@WWTH,
I’ll have to track that movie down sometime. That segment sounds interesting, at least.
@Beckabot,
That does sound like a good use of the idea, that the dead would plan their revenge in such a way. Especially if it turned out he did originally plan to die with the rest before changing his mind.
The idea I had was that the dead just simply sit and watch their killer, figuring out just what kind of man could kill that many people and not feel any apparent guilt for his actions. They then approach the killer one by one to talk to him, to get a better feel of him, and because they have a bit of time to kill before heading to their final destinations.
During these conversations it is learned that the afterlife is not what they were taught about it, and that it’s exactly what they’ve thought it was. And that the killer has caught the personal attention of at least a couple of bored supernatural critters, and that he REALLY might want to rethink the remaining parts of his Grand Plan while he has the time to do so….
As for the Heavy Metal movie, I had the occasion to see it on the big screen a few years ago, and found it held up fairly well over time. Some of the stories were more sexist than others (given the source material, not a surprise at all), though I was surprised that the B-17 sequence was a lot shorter than I remembered it was.
Though if anyone wants an extreme example of pandering to straight male fantasies, the last story had one that was blatant even by the standards of the movie. Fantasy City was under attack by the Big Bad and loosing, so the city rulers send out a call to their legendary protector Bikini Babe to deal with the threat. Babe receives the message, and goes to the sacred place where her armored bikini and pterodactyl mount were stored to rescue her people.
Now, in order to get to the sacred storage unit, Babe has to swim across a pool, naked. Which, fine, fits in with the rest of the movie’s aesthetic. Except the swim lasted something like a minute of real world time, with no story justification for the length of that bit – i.e. Bikini Babe didn’t gain the body of She-Hulk, the armored skin of Colossus, and the healing factor of Wolverine, or anything similar.
The filmmakers just decided to crash the momentum of the story to that point just to give a certain subset of the HM fanbase an extended masturbation fantasy. The momentum picked up again eventually, but it was pretty clear that the full swimming sequence could’ve been cut down to a fraction of its finished length, and nothing would’ve been lost story-wise.