All language subtitles for history-s-greatest-mysteries-s03e07-malaysia-flight-370-vidomon

Tonight,

one of the most chilling aviation
mysteries in modern day.

239 people vanish over the Indian Ocean
without a trip. With not

enough oxygen feeding the brain, people
can't do the simplest thing, let alone

something as complicated as piloting a
commercial aircraft.

Now we'll uncover the top theories
surrounding the world's most infamous

aircraft. The officials and most of the
media convinced themselves that the

satellite data could only mean one
thing, that the plane went south.

But they were wrong.

Was it potentially a murder -suicide?
There's 227 passengers on board. Any of

them could be responsible.

Can new clues bring us closer to
answers?

If the plane isn't flying itself, was it
something more sinister?

Because planes don't just disappear.

What really happened to Malaysia Flight
37?

March 8, 2014.

Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

Malaysia Flight 370 sits on the runway,
awaiting clearance for takeoff.

The cabin has been secured.

Tray tables and seat backs are in their
upright and locked position.

And the flight attendants are ready for
what they hope will be a routine flight.

On board, we have 239 people, 227
passengers.

We have 12 crew members.

The 12 crew members are all Malaysian
citizens, and up front we have Captain

Shah.

They're headed to Beijing International
Airport. It's a routine flight. They

make it twice a day.

March 8th is no exception.

This flight was a flight that Zahari
Shah, the captain of the flight, was

familiar with.

Normally, the flight takes about six
hours, flying over a handful of

and international waters.

At 1240 a .m., MH370 is cleared for
takeoff.

Recording inside the radio chatter back
and forth between the aircraft and the

tower shows that everything is routine,
mundane even.

At 106.

The plane's computer sends an automated
position report.

The transponders are continuously
communicating with air traffic control,

relaying information about the flight
status.

These messages show up on what's called
secondary radar.

At this point, Malaysia 370 is flying on
course and has 96 ,000 pounds of fuel

remaining. That's enough fuel for
another six to seven hours of flight.

A few minutes later, at 119.

Captain Shaw radios air traffic controls
as he transitions from Malaysian to

Vietnamese airspace.

Air traffic control in Kuala Lumpur
radios MH370 and says contact Ho Chi

120 .9. Good night.

That means it's time for MH370 to call
the Vietnamese controllers on the

frequency given.

Captain Tahari then says, good night,
Malaysia 370.

So everything seems fine. The next thing
that should happen is that air traffic

controllers in Ho Chi Minh City should
hear from Malaysia 370.

But that's not what happens.

The Vietnamese air traffic controller at
Ho Chi Minh never hear from that flight

at the scheduled time.

And all of a sudden, the flight
transponders aren't responding at all,

disappear from the air traffic
controller's screen.

Just 38 minutes into the flight,
Malaysia 370 simply disappears from

It's really inexplicable that this
aircraft, which had been flying and

transmitting this secondary data all
along, would, at this point of

just disappear. The transponder was
turned off, and the power was in some

stopped to the transponder. We don't
know why it happened.

In modern aviation, air traffic
controllers know exactly where their

are through secondary radars and
precisely scheduled communications.

So this is something that doesn't
happen.

Planes don't just vanish.

Alarm bells immediately ring, and
Vietnamese air controllers desperately

to contact the aircraft.

It's just not the case that an airliner
would be flying through some nation's

airspace without the controllers knowing
who it is, where it is, and why it's

there. That's the way it works. It
doesn't happen otherwise.

They tried to contact the cockpit
through the satellite phone several

there was no answer.

Then it was clear to them that the
aircraft crashed into the sea.

How could this happen so suddenly? Why
was there no warning from the pilot? No

mayday? Nothing.

This kicks off what will eventually
become the most expensive search in

history.

Everyone, dozens of governments,
hundreds of families, all want to know

happened to MH370.

By 5 .30 a .m., a massive search and
rescue mission is underway.

They gather 26 countries.

to help with the search by sending 50
ships and about 60 aircraft.

They're looking for anything on the
water, wreckage, oil slick.

The search starts naturally where the
last transmission from the aircraft

occurred and the last radar trace was
found.

It was right on the border between the
Gulf of Thailand and South China Sea.

So they do find some oil slick. They
test it.

to see if it's aviation fuel, but it's
not.

They look at satellite imagery, they see
what they think is debris, but they

physically go out there and there's
nothing there.

If the aircraft had crashed in that area
initially, there'd be debris and oil

slick and plastic and stuff all over the
China Sea. It makes no sense that

there's no sign of this airplane
anywhere.

After two days of searching,
Investigators turn to military radar

Radar on military bases are constantly
tracking to see if there's anything in

range.

Malaysia Flight 370 would have been in
radar range for bases in Thailand,

Malaysia, and Vietnam.

So their radar records track the plane
as well, and they do it slightly

differently. Civilians rely on secondary
radar, which requires a signal from the

airplane's transponder.

and that's what they've been using to
search for MH370 so far.

But the military uses what's called
primary radar.

Primary radar doesn't require a special
signal from an airplane.

It sends out radio waves where it
bounces off any object that might be in

sky, and it reflects that radio signal
back.

It's kind of like echolocation, like a
bat would use, but on a large scale.

A Boeing 777 has two transponders.

Specifically in case one fails, the
other one is still going to be fine.

So when MH370 vanishes from all the
radar, that means both transponders are

at the same time.

After the transponder is turned off.

The secondary radar can't see the
airplane anymore. But guess what? The

radar can still see the airplane and
continues to track it. It shows the

airplane keeps flying.

Not only does it keep flying, it makes
drastic course changes, just as it's

supposed to cross into Vietnamese
airspace.

So MH370 turns a little bit to the east,
then kind of loops back around. It's

almost like it's turning back, back
towards Malaysia.

Then MH370 approaches the Isle of Penang
and flies near the Strait of Malacca.

Military radar tracks MH370 for another
230 miles into the Andaman Sea until

the aircraft finally goes out of range.

So in other words, they're looking in
the wrong place.

The searchers move their search to the
Andaman Sea, but once again, there's

nothing there. So the investigators are
closer, but they're clearly not close

enough.

Keep in mind, military radar doesn't
pinpoint where this airplane stops

As far as we know, it's still in the air
all the way until it goes out of range.

After that, it could have gone in a lot
of different directions.

The radar records raise an important
question.

Why does the plane fly off course?

Before Malaysia Flight 370 vanishes on
March 8, 2014, investigators are shocked

to learn that the plane deviated from
its route.

The MH370 planned flight path would have
had it flying over the South China Sea

towards Beijing.

But the radar tracking shows it made a
series of turns going towards the west.

And it just keeps flying until it goes
out of radar range.

Once investigators...

realized the airplane kept flying, every
possible theory was out there.

Was it a bomb?

Was it terrorism?

Was it a crime?

Was it something more sinister?

Because planes don't just disappear.

The Internet went crazy, and so did
every global government agency.

To some, there's an obvious explanation.

Right away, we know that the aircraft
continues flying after the transponders

offline. The aircraft continues on its
path and drops off of military radar. We

know that because it's recorded on the
military radar until 2 .22 a .m.

Take this radar information and combine
it with the fact that the transponder

was cut off just prior to the aircraft
veering off course.

Combine that with the fact that there is
no emergency distress call made, and it

creates a truly terrifying possibility.

Was it potentially a murder -suicide?

Early in the investigation, they thought
they should look very deep into the two

men in the cockpit, which is natural
with this type of investigation.

The question is, would anything motivate
these two men to bring that aircraft

down? In the cockpit, we have Captain
Zahari Shah and First Officer

Fariq Abdul Hamid.

Farik is not fully qualified yet on the
777. However, this is his last flight to

qualify on the 777.

This is a big deal, the realization of a
lot of hard work.

He's been with the airline for seven
years. He's 27 years old. He's getting

married soon. He has a long career in
front of him.

And as a result of that, the
investigative bodies rule him out pretty

They don't think he did it.

leaving only one other suspect in the
cockpit.

People who subscribe to the murder
-suicide theory believe that the

Tsar Shah, deviated from the flight plan
and intentionally crashed that airplane

into the Indian Ocean, sadly taking
everyone with him.

Investigators dig deeper into Captain
Shah, and a search of his home turns up

disturbing clue.

Zara Shaw had a very sophisticated
simulator, an actual 777 simulator, in

house. When the investigative bodies
pull the data from it, it shows a

of flight paths.

We see that they run out over the Indian
Ocean. They just stop.

And ultimately, this is the path that
MH370 takes.

It seems as though Captain Shaw had
rehearsed this.

So the flight path is somewhat telling
in itself.

Captain Shaw is from the island of
Penang.

The final maneuver recorded by the
military radar was northwest of Penang,

very close to it. It was a clear night,
perfect visibility, and this turn gives

him a perfect view, a final view of his
home in Penang.

Some people believe that when you...

finally decide to commit suicide, that
person has a level of serenity.

So some people believe that this final
turn towards Penang was

him waving goodbye to his home.

While all of this evidence paints a
damning picture for the pilot, it is not

enough to close the case.

So officially, MH370 is not ruled
suicide by pilot because there's no

note, and they determined it's
impossible to know what's in his mind.

If the plane wasn't brought down by the
pilot or co -pilot, could it be someone

else on the inside?

Investigators turn their attention to
the crew.

There's always another possibility that
one of the...

cabin crew was trained and familiar with
the aircraft and how to get into the

cockpit. So the investigators looked
into every one of these crew members,

170 interviews, looked into their bank
accounts, social media accounts,

their love life, everything that they
could possibly look into, and they

find anything.

Ultimately, There is no substantial
evidence to tie the pilot or crew

any wrongdoing. There's absolutely no
proof that this was a murder -suicide.

But authorities have this nagging
problem.

Why is there no a stress call? What
could have happened?

Months after disappearing, the public is
desperate for investigators to find

Flight 370.

But with so little evidence, they have
their work cut out for them.

One of the most common things that
investigators can use to determine the

of the crash is radio chatter.

When there's something unusual happening
on the airplane, the flight crew

usually gets on the radio about it.

Whether there's an emergency, they see
something out the window, or there's a

passenger acting up, they usually radio
that in.

And in this case, there's no radio
distress call. We don't have that clue

help us.

Unless the lack of a distress call is
the clue.

Based on what we know, I think the most
logical explanation is that the airplane

depressurized.

causing everyone on board the aircraft
to become unconscious and die from a

of oxygen.

The reason this airplane is flying off
course and on an unusual path is because

the pilot is not thinking clearly.

This theory says that a terrible
accident happened on board, disabling

and probably the passengers as well.

So the problem with MH370... could have
actually started before it left the

craft.

Just before takeoff, maintenance logs
show that work was performed on

MH370's oxygen system.

The pressurization system in a 777
handles all the air that everyone

board. And it also handles the cabin
pressure.

At a high altitude, the pressure outside
the aircraft is very low, too low to

sustain life.

Inside the aircraft, it's pressurized
and it's comfortable.

So it's possible that the maintenance
fault could have resulted from the work

they did on the pressurization system,
essentially causing the aircraft not to

pressurize properly.

It's not terribly uncommon, but if it
does happen, someone has to pressurize

aircraft, typically using an emergency
procedure.

But what if they didn't?

The last communication with air traffic
control was made by Captain Zahari, good

night Malaysia 370.

And that means that he was not flying
the aircraft.

On a commercial airliner, there are two
pilots, one who is doing the flying and

the other who is doing the monitoring.

The pilot who is making the radio call
is not the pilot flying.

That's just the way it works.

Every radio call from the time that
Malaysia Flight 370 took off was made by

first officer, Fareed Abdul Hamid.

Captain Shaw was handling the takeoff,
getting out of Kuala Lumpur airspace,

sort of the more difficult parts of the
flight.

Captain Shaw was a highly experienced
airline captain. He had 18 ,000 flight

hours, and he was only 53 years old.
That's just 1 ,500 hours less than

Sully Sullenberger had when he famously
landed his airliner in the Hudson River.

After takeoff...

We can assume that 38 minutes into the
flight, when Captain Shaw's voice is on

the radio, he has handed control of the
aircraft to the first officer. Remember,

this was his last flight before becoming
qualified on the aircraft.

Now we have the first officer who's
operating an aircraft for which he's not

fully qualified.

We have 227 passengers on board, 12 crew
members, and the aircraft is climbing,

and we may have a maintenance problem.

A pressurization issue.

This is a dangerous situation.

It can lead to hypoxia.

Hypoxia is a lack of oxygen in the body
tissue and brain, which can occur in any

aircraft flying over 16 ,000 feet.

With not enough oxygen feeding the
brain, people can't do the simplest

let alone command an airliner.

To be blunt, hypoxia makes you stupid,
makes you unable to have rational

thoughts.

At a cruising altitude of 35 ,000 feet,
incapacitation due to hypoxia can occur

in less than a minute.

The statistics indicate that for pilots,
the time of useful consciousness could

be as low as 15 seconds.

Gradual onset hypoxia has caused
numerous airline crashes over the years.

It's a deadly scenario with very little
time to react.

There are a number of cases in which an
airplane takes off and the pilots have

failed to pressurize the aircraft or the
aircraft simply doesn't pressurize.

And because of the nature of hypoxia,
there are cases in which pilots got a

cabin altitude warning horn, a warning
that the aircraft was not properly

pressurized, and they may not respond to
it correctly if their brains are

already lacking oxygen.

Could this have happened aboard MH370?

So at first it makes sense. There is a
lack of a mayday call.

There's no call for help.

But under hypoxic conditions, they might
not even think they're in danger.

The erratic flight also speaks to a
hypoxic event. The pilot turned the

around, heading back to Kuala Lumpur as
part of a response to the emergency.

According to radar, the plane makes one
last turn.

So the final move made by the first
officer could have been to turn the

toward the runway that he knows.

That airport is Langkawi International,
set on an island just west of the

Malaysian Peninsula.

This is where he did his flight
training.

He's familiar with the terrain. He knows
that the runway is long enough to land

a fully loaded 777.

Instead of landing, the plane continues
to fly for 230 miles.

So at this point, we think that both
crew are incapacitated by hypoxia.

passed out. Then the autopilot takes
over.

The aircraft is carrying 239 people who
are most likely dead.

And they are flying until that airplane
runs out of fuel.

Not everyone is convinced the cabin
depressurer.

Could it be something more sinister?

When Malaysia Flight 370 goes missing,
investigators from nine countries join

the search, including the United States.

Their biggest challenge is the lack of
evidence, almost all of which lies on

that missing airplane.

But several months into their search,
authorities get a treasure trove of new

data, and it changes the course of the
investigation.

They hear from a company called MRSAT.

They handle satellite data for
commercial airlines.

Things like satellite phones in the back
of your seat to make calls, TV and

entertainment systems.

These systems are in constant
communication back and forth with the

system. It's pretty much just checking
in.

While MRSAT has records of this
communication, first thing that happens

airplane logs into the MRSAT system at
midnight Malaysia time, which is

right before takeoff.

Then the satellite system checks in with
the airplane.

on an hourly basis using automatic
pings.

It checks in to see, hey, are you there?

And we call that a handshake.

While the aircraft transponder is
offline, the Inmarsat communication

keeps going.

It takes months to analyze the data, and
at the time, they didn't have the

technology to make full sense of it. But
then when they finally figure out the

Inmarsat data, guess what? It shows
something incredible.

Previously, the last known contact of
the airplane was 2 .22 a .m. when it

disappears from military radar.

And investigators assume that the plane
crashed not too long after.

The MR site data shows seven automated
pings after 2 .22 a .m. And those pings

go all the way until 8 .19 a .m.

If the plane continues flying for six
more hours, where did it go?

So the technology at the time didn't
allow them to get a specific location

the Inmarsat ping. All they know is that
the plane is within range of a certain

satellite. So they calculate that to
cover a large area off the western

coast of Australia, which is way farther
south than anywhere they'd previously

looked.

This means that MH370 turned south and
flew for six hours into the middle of

nowhere.

Some theorists say that it's not on
autopilot. And why fly around for so

you intend to kill yourself? So if the
plane isn't flying itself, and the

are not committing suicide, that leaves
one other option.

A passenger took control of the
aircraft.

There are 227 passengers on board. Any
of them could be responsible.

In the world post -September 11th, we
look very carefully at who's on a plane.

As they dig deeper, investigators
realize not all of the passengers are

claim to be.

So they checked everybody's info, and
then there was this red flag.

Two people had boarded.

using stolen passports, one Italian and
one Australian.

When these two guys checked in, for some
reason, the passports were not

discovered by Interpol.

So we have two men on board this
airplane that are trying to hide

clearly, and we didn't know about it. We
don't know who they are, fake names,

fake passports.

These guys could be anybody.

So fortunately,

It's not 1950.

It's 2014.

And there's a large number of
surveillance everywhere.

We can trace these guys' steps.

The police found out these are two
friends using stolen passports. Turns

these two passports were stolen in
Thailand about two years before.

They bought a one -way ticket through a
payphone in Thailand.

From Thailand, they entered Malaysia
using their real passport.

So now we know who they are.

The men have a valid reason to hide
their identities.

These are two Iranian refugees, 19 and
29, seeking asylum in Beijing.

They don't have any knowledge about
airplanes.

So with those maneuvers that MH370 went
through, whoever was doing it knew what

they were doing in that cockpit. So it
turns out these guys were not really

suspects.

Investigators also believe...

The culprit knows how to work the
plane's internal systems, like the

transponder. There's a passenger on
board who might fit the bill. He's a

engineer from Switzerland.

The Boeing 777 -200 has access to the
avionics bay, which is under the

cockpit.

That's in the forward first -class
cabin.

And it's a small loft to get there.

This is where the flight computers are.
This is where the pressurization and

everything is.

So if you could get access to this room,
you could cause serious harm to an

aircraft in flight.

Would a flight engineer know about this?

Possibly.

But does the flight engineer have a
motive?

When we look into this person, we find
that he has a clean background.

He works on completely different type of
aircraft. He works on corporate jets.

he's probably not a suspect.

With no evidence to implicate any
passenger, the search goes cold for

years. Remember that proving what
happened is all about the evidence, and

is none until suddenly something washes
up.

It's 2017.

There's been almost no lead from MH370.

But one day, somebody's walking on the
beach and makes an incredible discovery.

Over 6 ,500 miles from the Malaysian
airport, wreckage appears on several

islands.

So now we finally have some hard
evidence that we could look at that were

pieces of that airplane.

For three years after Malaysia Flight
370 disappears, there's no sign of the

actual aircraft.

Until 2017.

when debris begins to surface.

So now we're getting some of these
chunks that are washed ashore over the

coast of Africa, Mozambique, and Reunion
Island.

In all, 33 pieces are found in six
different countries.

They even found this big piece. It's a
flaperon unique to the 777.

That had a serial number on it that
matches MH370, so it's got to be from

airplane. The parts also hold an
important clue.

There was some scorch marks on the
debris, and that tells me that there may

been a fire.

What we know for sure is that the
transponder went off 38 minutes into the

flight. Maybe.

It is caused by the fire on board.

Fires happen for a variety of reasons,
electrical, mechanical, maybe something

in the cargo hold or something in the
cabin.

MH370 was carrying about 500 pounds of
lithium ion batteries in the forward

cargo hold.

And we know this is more than enough to
possibly bring down an aircraft, as has

happened before.

On September 3rd, 2010, UPS Flight 6
takes off from Dubai International

This was a massive 747 -400 freighter,
UPS, piloted by Captain Lampe

and First Officer Matthew Bell.

138 miles into that flight, the cockpit
fills with smoke.

At this point, it's chaos.

It's not smoke like from a campfire.
This is thick smoke.

So thick you can't see through it.

They had no chance.

First Officer Lampe disconnected the
autopilot, perhaps trying to make a

turn towards Dubai.

And when he did that, he realized the
primary flight control system had failed

because of the fire, and now he couldn't
quite fly it properly. The captain got

out of his seat to get a...

fire extinguisher, unfortunately
succumbed by the fumes and smoke and

immediately.

Bell couldn't see his instruments, but
he was given a heading towards Dubai

Airport, runway 12 left.

Sadly, he crashes a few miles on the
other side of the runway.

Both pilots were killed.

The subsequent investigation

discovered that there was a pallet with
81 ,000 lithium -ion batteries on board

that freighter.

Lithium -ion batteries are extremely
volatile.

Even the ones that you have in your
phone, they have a high amount of charge

them, but very thin walls.

Because of the thin walls on these
batteries, if one of them catches fire,

very easy to propagate.

into the other batteries adjacent to it.
In rare cases, lithium ion batteries

actually combust in almost like a mini
explosion.

The FAA has recorded 340 airplane
incidents involving lithium batteries.

In 2019, regulations were put in place
to safeguard passenger planes.

It is now prohibited to carry lithium
-ion batteries in passenger airliners

in the cargo compartment of an airliner,
and a very limited amount on

freighters. But that was years after
pieces of MH370 began to wash up on

shores. So in the case of MH370, you
have some charred wreckage. You also

a large amount of fuel in the form of
lithium batteries on board.

What about the unusual flight path and
erratic maneuvers?

A lot of people are questioning that
sharp left turn. That could also be

explained by the fire.

We're trained that in case of a fire,
what you do is you immediately get off

airway. And at first, that's what it
appears that MH370 does.

Your next step is to find an airport to
land.

Some of these sporadic turns could be
possibly trying to figure out where are

they going to land this airplane as soon
as possible.

You have to either put out this fire or
get that airplane on the ground as fast

as you can.

Usually, they say it's between 12 to 14
minutes to get that airplane from

altitude down to the ground.

to basically glide, it is very hard to
get it on the ground that quickly,

if you literally nosedive.

People always ask why there was no
Mayday call, why they didn't call on a

Well, first of all, the aircraft may not
have been capable at that point of

calling for help. The radios or the
communication systems could have been

knocked out.

Additionally, you need to understand
what it's like to fly in a cockpit or a

cabin that is full of dense smoke.

If your car is on fire or your truck or
your boat, you can step out and jump

out. Unfortunately, you can't do that
out of an aircraft.

There's no help.

Fire department is not coming.

The crew is on their own, so what they
would be doing is working to put out the

fire.

777 has a very sophisticated onboard
fire detection and fire suppression

But unfortunately, it was not designed
to fight a lithium ion battery.

So when there's nothing else to do, the
other choice is to climb the aircraft

and starve the fire of the oxygen. But
the problem with that is the fire

needs oxygen to breathe.

And so do the folks in the back.

It's a gamble.

Would the fire run out of oxygen first
or the people? If you don't climb,

everyone is going to burn alive.

It's very possible that everybody was
dead long before it crashed into the

water. And perhaps that was the
autopilot flying the airplane, and no

control until eventually he runs out of
fuel.

But this evidence doesn't close the case
on Malaysia Flight 370.

We have only a few pieces of this
airplane that weighs almost a million

So we can make educated guesses.

We can keep digging. We can make
assumptions. But the truth is we don't

answer.

In fact, some experts are highly
skeptical about this physical evidence.

Some people look at patterns.

and the incredible amount of time that
passed before the wreckage washed up.

And they wonder, could this evidence
have been planted?

On January 17, 2017, the official search
for Malaysia Flight

370 is suspended.

Despite a sweep of 46 ,000 square miles
of the Indian Ocean seabed, the rest of

the plane isn't found.

So the official search, which took
hundreds of millions of dollars and

to conduct, came up empty.

According to some theorists, the search
might have been in the wrong area.

The officials and most of the media
convinced themselves that the satellite

could only mean one thing, that the
plane went south.

But they were wrong. There's another
possible interpretation of the data.

The reason that search officials thought
that the plane must have gone to the

southern Indian Ocean was because of
satellite metadata.

MH370 remained visible to ground -based
radar systems until about 2 .30 in the

morning.

After that, until 8 .19 in the morning,
the only clues are the satellite data

pings.

They're able to calculate the distance
of the plane from the satellite using

these pings.

and how it travels through time and
space.

The time delay between the satellite
sending its signal and the plane

allows you to calculate how far away the
plane is from the satellite.

But that only tells you one part of the
story.

The problem with those pings is it's
really challenging to identify where the

airplane exactly flew.

In fact, at the time of the crash, we
didn't have the technology to fully

analyze the data that was provided by
MRSAT.

And then we have an airplane that's on
the move. We don't know how fast it's

going, and we don't know how high it is.

These calculations have to be within
milliseconds, or you could be off

of miles.

Once they did their calculation, they
came to the conclusion that this data

meant unequivocally that the plane could
only have gone to the southern Indian

Ocean.

But there's another possible route.

It's taken years to figure out the math
here, but the data also aligns with a

northern arc.

Following the northern arc, the aircraft
would have passed through northern

Thailand and then Central Asia.

If the plane did fly along the northern
route, the final ping puts it over

central Kazakhstan.

If MH370 went to Kazakhstan, it opens up
a frightening possibility.

This theory says that terrorists hijack
the aircraft, take it to Kazakhstan,

kill the passengers, and then they could
have refueled and continued to anywhere

within Russia.

If the plane went north, it could have
landed safely.

It takes a lot of runway to land a big
plane like the 777, and there aren't a

lot of long runways in the remote
central part of Kazakhstan.

But it turns out that there is a runway
not too far away that is a suitable

runway for a 777 to land on.

The place is called Yubilany Runway, and
it's part of the former Soviet military

base. The big question is, did anyone on
the plane have ties to Russia?

In first class, there's a Russian
national named Nikolai Brodsky, and he's

sitting about 15 feet from an unlocked
hatch.

which contains the electronic brain that
controls all of the flight surfaces of

the plane and all the communications
with the ground. And in economy class,

have two Soviet Army veterans sitting
directly under the box that makes the

satellite thing.

It's entirely possible that somebody
took control of the plane, killed

on board, flew off into perfect safety,
refueled, went and hid the plane

somewhere.

and got away scot -free.

But if MH370 didn't crash, where did the
debris come from?

Some theorists say pieces were taken off
the aircraft, thrown into the Indian

Ocean to throw up investigators.

The idea that these pieces might have
been planted by perpetrators would

why no debris was spotted from the
aerial searches over the area where the

was presumed to be missing for months.

Was MH370 an accident or was it a crime?

Perfect.

Despite the end of the official
investigation in 2018, there remain

private citizens.

dedicated to solving this mystery.

Around the world, scientists,
journalists, non -profits, even major

continue to hunt for answers about what
really happened to Malaysia Flight 370,

answers that will hopefully bring
closure to the families of those on

I'm Lawrence Fishburne. Thank you for
watching History's Greatest Mystery.