Goodnight Malaysian 370: The Truth Behind the Loss of Flight 370

387 Pages·2014·26.94 MB·English

by  Ewan Wilson

© 2014 Wilson Aviation Limited
Published by:
Wilson Aviation Limited
14 Hammond Street
Hamilton
New Zealand 3204
www.wilsonaviation.co.nz
www.GoodnightMalaysianflt370.com
Written by Ewan Wilson & Geoff Taylor
Edited by Kingsley Field
First edition August 2014
ISBN 9-780-473-28868-6
This book is copyright. Except for the purpose of fair reviewing, no part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publisher. Infringers of copyright render themselves liable to prosecution.
The authors assert their moral rights in the work.
Table of Contents
GLOSSARY
FOREWORD
PROLOGUE
Chapter 1 The Airport
Chapter 2 Departure Time
Chapter 3 Take-Off
Chapter 4 Disappearing Act
Chapter 5 The Radar Disaster
Chapter 6 Aftermath
Chapter 7 Sinister Motives Emerge
Chapter 8 The Real Search Begins
Chapter 9 The Vast Indian Ocean
Chapter 10 More Pain
Chapter 11 No Black Box, No Luck
Chapter 12 Kuala Lumpur Moves On/span>
Chapter 13 Zaharie, Prime Suspect
Chapter 14 Humans and Technology
Chapter 15 MH370 Wasn’t Shot Down
Chapter 16 Accidental Hypoxia Unlikely
Chapter 17 Pilot Suicide
Chapter 18 Our Scenario
Chapter 19 Conclusion
APPENDICES
Glossary
AAIB Air Accident Investigation Branch
ACARS Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System
ADSB Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast
AIP Aeronautical Information Publication
AMSA Australian Maritime Safety Agency
APU Auxiliary Power Unit
ATC Air Traffic Control
ATCCS Air Traffic Control Centre
ATSB Australian Transport Safety Bureau
BEA Bureau d’Enquetes at d’Analyses pour La Securite de L’Aviation Civile
BUTTERWORTH Royal Malaysian Air Force. Butterworth Base
CVR Cockpit Voice Recorder
DCA Department of Civil Aviation (Malaysia)
ELT Emergency Locator Beacon
FAA Federal Aviation Administration
FDR Flight Data Recorder
FMC Flight Management Computer
GGCA General Civil Aviation Authority (United Arab Emirates)
GPS Global Positioning System
HCM Ho Chi Minh City
HF High Frequency (radio)
ICAO International Civil Aviation Organisation
ISMS In-flight Safety Monitoring System (usually Star-ISMS)
IFE In-Flight Entertainment (system)
KL Kuala Lumpur
KLATCC Kuala Lumpur Air Traffic Control Centre
LNAV Lateral Navigation System
MAS Malaysian Airline Systems (Malaysia Airlines former title)
MA Ops Malaysia Airlines Operations Centre
MCP Mode Control Panel
n/m Nautical Mile
NTSB National Transport Safety Board (US)
PFD Primary Flight Display
PSU Passenger Service Unit
RAT Ram Air Turbine
RMAF Royal Malaysian Air Force
SAR Search and Rescue
SATCOM Satellite Communications System
SDU Satellite Data Unit
SID Standard Instrument Departure
SITA Society Internationale de Telecommuncations Aeronautiques
SSR Secondary surveillance radar
TAC Thrust Asymmetry Compensation
TUC Time of Useful Consciousness
TRS ThalesRaytheon Systems
UAE United Arab Emirates
ULB Underwater Locator Beacon
UNMO United Malays National Organisation
V1/V2 Important speeds in operation of an aircraft
VMO Maximum operating speed of an aircraft
VAMPI/IGOCU/MEKAR/PIBOS/IGARI Waypoints or geographical locations identified by latitude and
longitude along designated air routes.
VHF Very High Frequency (radio)
VSI Vertical Speed Indicator

Foreword
We dedicate this book to the 239 people who lost their lives on MH370 on
March 8, 2014, on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
One of our purposes in writing the book was, in some small way to convey
the human stories from the tragedy. We hope we have done this without adding
upset to the terrible toll relatives and friends are already facing. Our other, more
important task was to pursue the truth about what exactly happened. That is one
small contribution we feel we can make to this whole terrible affair.
It is doubly tragic that we now also find ourselves dedicating the book to 298
more people whose lives were so sickeningly ended above the skies of Ukraine
on July 17. Further on in the book, we will briefly analyse this horrific act and its
implications both for the future of the stricken Malaysia Airlines and for the
world’s commercial aviation industry.
For all of us, the horror of MH17 is still sinking in. Although there were
obvious links through the airline, the two tragedies were quite different. The
Ukraine crash came from a simple cause. A moment of brutal, callous stupidity
which saw the 777 shot down over a war-zone. Although it made the horror no
less palpable, within a day it was clear what had occurred. There is no similar
clear-cut answer to what happened to MH370. The aircraft is still missing, the
relatives still have no closure and no answers. It is the biggest mystery in the
history of aviation. For this reason, MH370 is our focus in this book.
Aviation is a highly technical field and is full of its own jargon, acronyms and
abbreviations. For the sake of brevity, we use the full title or description in the
text and from then on the shortened version, but have included a glossary for the
reader’s reference. There are also some variations in how some aspects are
referred to by people quoted. For example, in the book, the Malaysia Airlines
flight is sometimes referred to as MAS370 by air traffic controllers or by its call
sign Malaysian 370. The actual flight name is MH370, which is what we use
throughout.
As well, we have deliberately steered away from technical references,
common in aviation, and tried to keep things simpler for a general audience.
There are many people and many organisations to thank. First, we thank
Jahabar Sadiq, chief executive officer of The Malaysian Insider and Martin
Vengadesan, news editor of the Star Online for their generosity in making
themselves available to us. Others who helped include Asuad Khan and Peter
Chong, and also a well-respected 777 200ER pilot who has asked to remain
anonymous but you know who you are and we thank you. We have drawn
heavily on the expertise of a number of professional reports and news media
accounts. These include: Australian Transport Safety Bureau report, MH370 -
Definition of Underwater Search; Malaysian Government, MH370 Preliminary
Report; Dr Richard E Cole, University College London - An Analysis of the
Inmarsat Data from MH370; Air Accidents Investigation Branch Aircraft
Accident Report 2/90 (EW/C1094); Transportation Safety Board of Canada,
Aviation Investigation Report In-Flight Fire Leading to Collision with Water,
Swissair Transport Ltd; GCAS Air Accident Investigation Report Boeing 747
44AF, N571UP, Dubai; Air Accident Investigation and Aviation Safety Board
report Helios Airways Flight HCY522 11/2006; National Transportation Safety
Board Aircraft Accident Report In-flight break-up over the Atlantic Ocean of
Trans World Airlines Flight 300; ATSB - Course manual and notes Human
Factors for Transport Safety Investigators Canberra March 2014; National
Transportation Safety Board Aircraft Accident Brief Egypt Air Flight 990
Boeing 767-366ER, SU-GAP October 31,1999; New Straits Times, Associated
Press, NZ Herald, Weekend Herald, ABC News, AFP, Reuters, CNN, A Current
Affair, The Independent, Asia Pacific News, CBC News, The Telegraph, Malay
Online, The Economic Times, Perth Now News, Brisbane Times, Brisbane
Courier Mail, Sydney Morning Herald, The Daily Mail, BBC, Asia News
Network, 60 Minutes, India Today, Borneo Post, Four Corners, Sunday Times,
The Daily Mirror, The Daily Telegraph.
We thank the ‘old pro’, our superb editor Kingsley Field, and the tremendously
accommodating teams at Print House and Pan Media. We also owe a debt of
gratitude to Gordon Chesterman, Martin Gallagher, Nicola Brennan-Tupara and
Deborah Sloan for their advice and Jonathan MacKenzie for his unstinting
support.
A special thanks to our incredibly patient wives Julie Taylor and Monique
Wilson, and the rest of our families for their love and support. We also thank
Charlie, Caesar, Monty and Bruno for their unflagging loyalty.
Lastly, it is possible no one will ever truly know exactly what happened to
MH370 down to the last detail. Malaysian authorities - and probably others - are
privy to information such as radar data, flight crew records and details of police
investigations. We are not. We based our investigations on what was publicly
available and on interviews.
We present the various scenarios and attempt by a process of elimination,
using logic, analysis of everything we know of MH370, and past evidence from
air accidents, to arrive at the most likely conclusion of what happened to the
flight. We think we got it right.
But ultimately we leave it to the reader to decide.
Geoff Taylor and Ewan Wilson, July 2014, New Zealand.

PROLOGUE
Wednesday afternoon, July 24, 2014. Eindhoven, Holland.
The planes barely made any noise as they approached the airforce base - a
number of people commented on it. Two big military aircraft - a Royal
Netherlands Air Force Hercules and a Royal Australian Air Force C-17. They
seemed to glide soundlessly in, as if in deference to the occasion. It added to the
eerie feel as those first bodies arrived at Eindhoven Airbase in Holland from the
flight from Ukraine. Australian freelance writer Daniel Hatch described how it
would have been utter silence but for the tinkling sound of the flags flying at
half-mast, clattering against poles in the wind. The flags represented the
countries which had passengers aboard MH17 - 298 people senselessly murdered
near a village in Eastern Ukraine a week before.