Theories in lieu of facts on missing flight

FLIGHT MH370<br>The Mystery<br>< b> Nigel Cawthorne</b><br><i>John Blake Publishing</i>
FLIGHT MH370<br>The Mystery<br>< b> Nigel Cawthorne</b><br><i>John Blake Publishing</i>
''The Pope - No News.'' So trumpeted placards for the London Star evening newspaper in a flat patch many moons ago (it worked).  

That story bubbled repeatedly to mind as I read Nigel Cawthorne's book, Flight MH370: The Mystery.

The facts of the tragedy are unprecedentedly sparse. The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 departed Kuala Lumpur headed for Beijing on March 7 this year with, let them not be forgotten, 239 people on board.

For about an hour, the laconic patter between the crew and controllers, whether you read the transcript or listen to the recordings, seemed entirely relaxed.

Then ... nothing. Between signing off from Malaysian control and calling up Vietnamese, something happened.

The notion of that communications gap being taken advantage of for some nefarious purpose is simply speculation. What do we know with certainty?

According to radar, the aircraft turned around and flew a dog-leg to the Strait of Malacca. Routine signals from an engine monitoring system, picked up by satellite, show the aircraft flew for 7.5 hours. Sophisticated analyses of the satellite signals, looking for tiny shifts in frequency akin to a passing siren, even allowing for the Earth's wobble below the satellite, indicate a course to the west of Australia and inevitable fuel exhaustion.

That's about it. What does this book add? Since there are no hard answers, unsurprisingly not much.

The less that's known for certain, the more vehemently people promote their theories. We've had hijacking, a secret landing somewhere, computer failure, electronic hacking, hazardous cargo, fire, an explosion, aliens, and some entirely unsubstantiated propositions about the aircrew. Even a cloaking device (p154 if you don't believe me). Historic aircraft malfunctions delving as far back as the 1950s fill much of the book, some with unrequired pathological details.

The absence of a Mayday call has intrigued many, but shouldn't, because it ranks well down the check list. The last thing to bring a wayward aircraft under control is the microphone.

A qualified source is quoted as saying ''the pilots did not do what pilots do''. But let's face it, if the crew were incapacitated they were not going to do anything.

Were they incapacitated? The author relates incidents in which aircraft have depressurised at high altitude where there's little oxygen. If it happens suddenly (hitting something, a door coming off) it's a major emergency with seconds to grab the oxygen masks, descend rapidly to a few thousand feet and keep control.

A gradual leak (a faulty door, a mis-set valve) is so insidious everyone aboard can drift quietly into unconsciousness. It happened over Greece in 2005.

A wayward missile from a military exercise? ''Now I'm not saying that's what happened ...'' the author assures us on the last page.

- Clive Trotman is a Dunedin arbitrator and science presenter.

Add a Comment