Conspiracy theories are literally flying fast and thick as the tragic and mysterious fate of Malaysia Airlines flight MH 370 continues to baffle aviation experts and investigators. That the Boeing 777 jet with 239passengers and crew on board bound for Beijing crashed for some reason, possibly into the sea, is now beyond doubt. However, even if the massive, ever-widening search finds traces of the wreckage, the cause of the crash and why the aircraft vanished from radar screens without any warning signs or emergency broadcasts, will take months, possibly years, to become clear, if at all.
It has brought the conspiracy theorists out in droves, with the wildest theories being the creation of another Bermuda Triangle in the air over the Strait of Malacca. The number of ships that vanished in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean has resurrected the parallel but there is no evidence that any similar incidents have taken place in the seas between Malaysia and Vietnam.
The closest was in 1977 when Flight 653 from Penang to Singapore crashed while still over Malaysian territory, though there was an element of mystery involved as well. The aircraft was hijacked but the method of hijacking and the eventual crash still remains a mystery. Almost as soon as the plane reached altitude, the flight captain reported an unidentified attempt to wrestle control of the plane. Some 20 minutes later, all communication was lost with the plane. The wreckage was found the same day, with no identifiable bodies or evidence as to what may have happened.
It?s a surprise, albeit a welcome one, that the aviation sector, with aircraft flying at high altitudes and the imponderables regarding weather, maintenance and security procedures, experiences few crashes compared to the thousands of flights that operate every hour or day, but there have been similar cases where the files have not been closed.
The most recent was the Air France Airbus A330-200, which left Rio de Janeiro on May 31, 2009 at 7.29 pm local time, headed for Paris. The last contact with the plane was three hours into the flight. As with MH 370, there was a gap of six hours before Air France acknowledged that it had lost contact with the plane. A day later, Air France announced that the plane had crashed with no survivors, even though no wreckage had been found. It took another six days for the wreckage to be located and the first bodies recovered. In all, 216 passengers and 12 aircrew perished and the final report released in July, 2012, attributed the crash to a combination of mechanical failures and human error, which means the actual cause could not be established. The bodies of 74 passengers still remain unrecovered.
Equally unresolved was the fate of TWA Flight 800 which crashed on July 17, 1996, very shortly after leaving JFK International Airport, killing all 230 people on board. The fact that it crashed into the Atlantic made recovery and investigative efforts difficult, but initial theories suggested that it had been hit by a missile. After a four-year investigation, the final report by the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) stated that the crash was caused by ?an explosion of the centre wing fuel tank, resulting from ignition of the flammable fuel/air mixture in the tank?.
Eerily similar was the fate of EgyptAir Flight 990 which left JFK International exactly three years after the TWA crash, and also plunged into the Atlantic, killing 200 people on board. The NTSB concluded after a three-year investigation that one of the Egyptian pilots, Gameel al-Batouti, had intentionally brought the plane down. The NTSB theory was that the downward trajectory of the plane was inconsistent with mechanical failure.
Based on the recovered cockpit voice recorder, NTSB also underlined al-Batouti?s lack of surprise when the jet began descending. However, Egyptian authorities disputed the claim and blamed it on mechanical failure, refusing to accept that an Egyptian pilot would commit suicide, killing many others.The NTSB also failed to determine a motive for the pilot?s actions.
Disputed theories also clouded investigations into the crash of Pan Am Flight 103 in December 1988. It blew up over Lockerbie, Scotland, because of a bomb in the cargo compartment, which killed 270 on board and others on the ground. Israeli counter-terrorism officials were hired by Pan Am to investigate what happened. They claimed to have proof that the crash of Pan Am 103 was the result of a CIA operation that went bad, without providing any such evidence. The US government later concluded that the attack was ordered by the Libyan government, a charge the Libyans eventually conceded was true.
Then there is the mystery of Flight 191. Flight 191 does not refer to a specific crash but to incidents that have plagued a number of flights, all designated 191. In fact, there have been so many catastrophes that, much like hotel owners who refuse to have a 13th floor, some superstitious airlines have completely done away with the number ?191?. Since the 1960s, five flights with the number ?191? have ended in fatal crashes, including the worst aircraft disaster in American history: American Airlines Flight 191, which killed 273 people. Most recently, in 2012, JetBlue Airways Flight 191 made headlines after the pilot went crazy during the flight and had to be subdued by passengers. Later, he was put in a mental hospital. Although the misfortune of flights ending in 191 is likely a coincidence, numerologists have had a field day trying to decipher the hidden meaning of the numbers.
Finally, there is the longest lasting mystery, and one involving an aviation pioneer, American explorer Amelia Earhart. She disappeared in July 1939, during her attempt to circumnavigate the globe. The accepted theory was that her single-seater plane crashed into the ocean. However recent evidence has led researchers to believe Earhart was able to survive for a while, on a deserted island near where she went missing. A $2 million expedition was launched to try to find evidence of Earhart?s disappearance, or any wreckage of her plane. Almost 75 years after her disappearance, we are no closer to solving the mystery.