On March 8, 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 lost contact en route to Beijing, China. With 239 people on board, the plane disappeared between Malaysia and Vietnam. Days later, while rescue crews continued to search for the plane and investigators hunted for clues to what happened, authorities were not ruling out anything including pilot suicide, engine failure or some other kind of structural failure that caused the plane to break apart. Here's a look at some other theories that made the rounds in the days after Flight 370 went missing.
Act of Piracy
It might have seemed like the plot of a movie at first: stealing an airplane out of midair, but the more this theory was discussed, the more people started to believe it was possible. Even exports said that while it was improbable, it was not impossible for a skilled pilot to avoid radar. However, a mile long runway would be needed as well as a hanger big enough to conceal it. Considering the other variables such as that the pilot would probably have to land the plane in the dark and not be seen at any time, this theory is improba...
One of the disappearances involves Flight 19. “Five Avenger torpedo bombers lifted into the air from the Naval Air Station at Fort Lauderdale, Florida, at 2:10 in the afternoon” (“The Mystery”). The goal of the flight was to practice bomb runs and did not seem to be unusual. The pilots consisted of all students except for one commander whose name was Lt. Charles Taylor. However, the Charles Taylor was not familiar with the area around which they were flying. Taylor then became frustrated and confused which caused them to end up miles of course (“The Mystery”). Pilot experience when flying is important and could be the reason why a flight makes it to its destination or does not. Another disappearance involves the loss of NC16002. “NC16002 was a DC-3 passenger plane that vanished on the night of December 28, 1948, during a flight from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Miami, Florida” (“The Mystery”). “Investigators focused on the fact that Huber wasn’t licensed to fly in the dark, using only instruments, and that the plane had taken off from the Bahamas before sunrise” (MacGregor 38). Pilot experience and training can be seen as the reason why these flights never made it to where they were supposed to go which is explanation as to why the planes
After the crash, the mangled twin-engine plane rested about 75 yards from the end of the runway in a marshy area. Workers carried away badly burned bodies and laid them nearby. Pieces of the plane were strewn about the crash site.
On July 17, 1996, Trans World Airlines flight 800, A Boeing 747-100, exploded and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near New York 12 minutes after its departure. All 230 people on board died.
After September 11th, 2001, the airline industry experienced a significant drop in travel. The reasons for the airline industry downfalls also included a weak U.S and global economy, a tremendous increase in fuel costs, fears of terrorist's attacks, and a decrease in both business and vacation travel.
According, to the History website composed by A&E, the airplanes were hijacked by 19 militants who were associated with al-Qaeda. These individuals hijacked four planes. Two of the four planes were crashed into the Twin Towers. A third plane was crashed into the Pentagon and the last plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. The tragedies of September11, 2001 led to the creation of many acts, security systems and groups of anti-terrorism.
In conclusion, many contribution factors led to the Crossair flight 3597 crash but is mainly triggered by Crossair’s incapability of assessment, pilot error and lastly the air traffic controller. Analysis of a flight crash is important so that we will know the causes, thus being able tackle it, making sure that there are no other flight crashes like Crossair flight 3597.
The above mentioned airplane was a planned commercial passenger flight that took off from LaGuardia Airport, New York destined for Charlotte Douglas Airport in North Carolina on January 15, 2009. Six minutes after takeoff, the airplane was successfully abandoned in Hudson River after striking multiple birds during its initial climb out. The crew reported by radio two minutes after takeoff at an altitude of 3,200 feet, the Airbus experienced multiple bird strikes. The result of this multiple bird strikes, which occurred in northeast of George Washington Bridge was compressor stalls as well as loss of thrust in both engines. The Airbus was ditched in Hudson River after the aircrew discovered that they would not reach any airfield and turned southward. Fortunately, all the 155 passengers on board survived the accident though the Airbus was partly submerged and sinking slowly.
On February 24, 1989, United Airlines flight 811 was en route to Sydney, Australia from Honolulu, Hawaii. They later experienced decompression due to the cargo door failure in front aft during flight. Flight 811 made successful emergency landing at Honolulu with nine passengers missing out of 337 passenger aboard. The cargo door that was ejected on Flight 811 damaged engines 3 and 4, which led to crew to turn back to Honolulu.
On the 25th of September 1999, Big Island Air Flight 58 Piper Chieftain, crashed on a slope of the Mauna Loa Volcano in Hawaii at approximately 5:30pm. All nine of the passengers on board and the pilot were killed in the crash. The impact sustained by the airplane and the fire that followed the impact completely destroyed the airplane. Big Island Air Flight 58 was operating under CFR Part 135 air taxi operations providing sight seeing tours to tourists and locals. The Piper Chieftain had departed from Keahole – Kona International Airport, Kona Hawaii (KOA) at around 4:22pm. The airport reported that there were visual meteorological conditions that existed prior to the planes departure. The pilot had filed a proper visual flight rules (VFR) flight plane prior to his departure. The investigation that followed performed by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) had determined that instrument conditions existed in the area of the crash site.
On November 28, 2004 at about 10:00 a.m. mountain standard time, a Canadair (now Bombardier) CL-600-2A12 (Challenger 600), tail number N873G, crashed into the ground during takeoff at Montrose Regional Airport (MJT), Montrose, Colorado. The aircraft was registered to Hop-a-Jet, Inc., and operated by Air Castle Corporation doing business as Global Aviation. (Insert Here)The flight was operating under Part 135 Code of Federal Regulations. The captain filed the flight under an IFR Flight plan. Of the six passengers on board, three died from fatal injuries and the other three sustained major injuries. The aircraft was totaled due to the impact with the ground and a post-crash fire.
Flight 370 was an international passenger flight that went missing on March 8, 2014. The flight was scheduled in route to Beijing, but it went missing throughout the second day after the plane took off from Kuala National Airport. At approximately 1:21 p.m., the communications and transponder signal were functioning no longer. There were no emergency calls at the time the plane had its last checkpoint. On March 24 at approximately 10p.m.Malaysia Standard Time, officials ceased the search as radio signals picked up debris found throughout a remote Indian Ocean. It is believed that all of the 239 passengers on the plane died (Preimesberger). From protests and outcries, to mourning and fallouts, it is still a distraught event that shocked the world.
...thin minutes and took the film.” There was barely any debris from the plane. The government stated that all the planes that were hijacked were the same. The engine of the plane that was found at the scene of the Pentagon attack didn't have the same engine as the other planes, with that being said, it could have been a smaller plane since it was a smaller building. There were no aircraft wreckage, wings, tails, luggage, seats, and bodies. The plane that appears to be flown into the Pentagon was said to be Flight 77 especially from the size of it. Flight 77 can be remote-controlled whether with or without guidance. The transponders for all of the planes were turned off. The way the plane made its exit was a perfect circle but that circle didn't match the plane that the American government claimed it to be. The Pentagon also seemed to be rigged with explosives as well.
The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was the failure of the flightcrew to monitor the flight instrument during the final 4 minutes of flight, and to detect an unexpected descent soon enough to prevent impact with the ground. Preoccupation with a malfunction of the nose landing gear position indicating system distracted the crew's attention from the instruments and allowed the descent to go unnoticed.
On January 15, 2009, United Airlines flight 1549 ditched into the Hudson river immediately after take off from New York’s LaGuardia Airport only five passengers were seriously injured and seventy-eight passengers reported minor injuries. It was brilliant piloting of Captain Chesley Sullenberger that saved everyone from a horrendous death but how did this event occur? From reports and interviews, the aircraft suffered damage to both of the aircraft’s engines. The cause of the failure to both engines, was non other than a flock of Canada Geese that flew into both engines, during the first two minutes of the flight.
When I stepped into the large neatly organized white polished plane, I never though something would go wrong. I woke up and found myself on an extremely hot bright sunny desert island filled with shiny soft bright green palm trees containing rough bright yellow hard felt juicy apples. The simple strong plane I was in earlier shattered into little pieces of broken glass and metal when crashing onto the wet slimy coffee colored sand and burning with red orange colored flames. After my realization to this heart throbbing incident I began to run pressing my eight inch footsteps into the wet squishy slimy light brown sand looking in every direction with my wide open eyes filled with confusion in search of other survivors. After finding four other survivors we began moving our small petite weak legs fifty inches from the painful incident. Reaching our destination which was a tiny space filled with dark shade blocking the extreme heat coming from the bright blue sky, I felt my eyelids slowly moving down my light colored hazel eyes and found myself in a dream. I was awakened the next day from a grumbling noise coming from my empty stomach.