Investigators are combing a remote area of the Indian Ocean for possible debris from missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, but the mystery around its abrupt disappearance grows with each passing day.
Stymied by a lack of physical evidence, experts are at a loss to explain what happened March 8, when the Boeing 777 departed Kuala Lumpur on a routine flight carrying 239 passengers to Beijing and apparently vanished into thin air.
Here are some of the leading theories and biggest questions about the fate of Flight 370:
HOW DOES A BOEING 777 VANISH?
It’s not easy, unless the plane suffered some sort of explosion that instantly decimated it.
Barring that, making a 209-foot long plane go dark takes real effort and planning.
After First Officer Fariq Abdul Hamid communicated his “All right, good night” message, the plane was at a critical point in its journey, just leaving Malaysian airspace, meaning there was a handoff between air traffic controllers in Kuala Lumpur and Ho Chi Minh City.
At some point as the plane moved from one airspace to another, two of its critical communications systems stopped functioning. It’s not clear if they were manually turned off or they malfunctioned.
The plane’s transponder, which sent radar “pings” to radar stations on the ground, stopped communicating around 1:22 p.m.
The Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) that sends half-hour updates on the plane’s mechanical functions made a report at 1:07 a.m., but failed to deliver the next-scheduled report at 1:37 a.m.
Either of those systems would have left the electronic equivalent of a breadcrumb trail for investigators to follow had they been working as expected, said Matt Robinson, an air safety expert and former military pilot who was a lead aircraft accident investigator for the U.S. Navy and Marines.
CAN IT MAKE AN EMERGENCY LANDING WITH NO RUNWAY?
Yes, of course, said Robinson.
“Planes can make emergency landings on water,” he said. “They can also make emergency landings on the ground, but there’s no evidence that this plane actually has.”
An emergency landing would have likely caused some damage, which would have activated the plane’s emergency locator transmitter, and that would have been picked up by a satellite, Robinson noted.
COULD IT HAVE BEEN MALICIOUS PILOT ACTION?
Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, has been flying for Malaysia Airlines since 1981. Hamid, 27, had just started training to fly the 777. Investigators are probing the backgrounds of both men.
WHAT ABOUT A MALFUNCTION?
Aviation experts initially suspected that something sudden and horrific happened. Perhaps a bomb on board, or some type of failure with the engines or airframe. But if that were the case, debris would have been found in the spot where the transponder went off.
COULD IT HAVE BEEN HIJACKED BY TERRORISTS?
This theory took hold after it was discovered that two Iranians on board — one 18, the other 28 — were traveling on stolen passports. Investigators haven’t found anything linking either to terror groups. No credible group has taken credit for the disappearance and intelligence agencies say they haven’t noticed any chatter in terrorist circles regarding the jet.
WHAT ABOUT A FIRE?
Many pilots speculated that the crew was incapacitated by a fast-moving fire that knocked out the plane’s electrical system and then overwhelmed everyone with smoke before an SOS could be sent.
It’s possible, but flight attendants and passengers would have had time to try to enter the cockpit and take control of the plane.
COULD IT HAVE BEEN STOLEN AND HIDDEN?
It’s possible that somebody landed the plane at some remote airport, although nobody has taken responsibility or demanded a ransom for passengers.