MH370 – The slips that spoke a louder truth

3 weeks have passed and there is not a single shred of concrete evidence to tell what happened to MH370. We are back at square one with many people furiously rushing to the Antarctics where all the ‘evidences’ are pointing, that there is where the aircraft had crashed. We have heard all the leads, some supposedly very real, some like real, some very technical, some plain speculative and some plain idiotic, but all saying one thing, MH370 crashed in the Antarctics. Now, if these did not smell a rat, what else could? Is there someone trying to lead everyone by the nose to the Antarctics?

Throughout this period of panicky search, grasping at anything that moved, what was really telling a more compelling story could be from the slips that popped up along the way. The first slip came from the Malaysians claiming that they saw a few blips heading towards the Malacca Straits and then northwest. This was later refuted when the Indonesians said their radars in the same area did not see anything. Of all the people, the Indonesians were a neutral party and have no interest to want to lie or hide anything. In fact this claim by the Indonesians is very material to dispel more speculative claims later. I will elaborate this as I go along.

The next major slip came from the Indian Govt claiming that they could not afford to switch on their radars all the time, in another words they did not see anything, or they were not going to reveal what they had seen. This is also a very important leak if you know what the Indians were really saying.

The reports that islanders in the Maldives saw an aircraft flew very low over the island on the morning of MH370’s disappearance was meant to be another lead. To make the story more convincing, they added that the aircraft was painted in the same red and white as MH370. Though flying very low, they could not see the MAS logo on the aircraft. What did that say? From all angles and explanations, there was no reason for MH370 to be in Maldives and not flying at that level. What was the intent of this lead or mislead?

The most important leak or slip came when PM Abbott found it so important to rush to call Najib personally when all he got was a couple of images of debris in the Antarctics. And the Australians even thought it an earth shattering discovery to hold a press conference on this find. What did Abbott know, or what were the Australians trying to tell the world? Yes, without any concrete evidence, they were pointing to the Antarctics as the crash site. Were they pulling everyone’s ear to look there?

This was followed by two theories of a suicidal pilot and an aircraft flying on auto pilot, the pilot being dead, and in both cases somehow must head towards where the Australians said was the crash site, a remote corner that is really out of this world. What coincidences! There must be a big magnet there, or a black hole.

Then technical proof came from Immarsat with pings showing two arcs, a northern and a southern arc where the aircraft could fly. And of course it must be the southerly one and must be pointing to the site the Australians said so. And nobody remembered or wanted to remember that the Indonesians categorically denied seeing any aircraft on their radar screens. A southerly flight path must be seen by many Indonesian radars. A dead pilot would not be evading radars anymore. So would a suicidal pilot with 238 dead bodies keeping him company on his last 7 hours of flight. The thought of flying an aircraft with all the dead bodies alone, and a dead co pilot sitting beside him would be enough to scare him to death.

Nonetheless more debris was captured on satellite cameras but never to be seen by ships or aircraft searching in the area. And so was the silence of the black boxes, presumably in the area but not sending out any signals to be heard.

The leads or slips got more important and hilarious with the finale coming from Najib who conclusively declared that the aircraft crashed at the spot the Australians said so and all passengers were dead. The important thing is what was said to Najib or shown to him by the Australians to make him so convinced, so confident to go public to pronounce the passengers dead and the MH370 ended there, and the case was closed? Without revealing the information given to him by the Australians he appeared quite stupid and this was not missed by anyone. Probably he is now regretting what he had said as the information passed to him was top secret and he could not go public to redeem himself. Did the Australians know something that nobody knows?

The biggest mystery about this incident is the role of the Americans. Does anyone notice that the Americans have deliberately taken a minor role while Australia is assuming the leadership? It is abnormal for the Americans, with its number One superpower status, the amount of high tech equipment and satellites at its disposal, and its consistent policy of wanting to show who is the boss man but chose to take a step back in this search? And someone pointed out rightly that it took the Americans a whole 3 weeks to deliver their blackbox seeking underwater craft to the Australians. This would take another 4 days to reach the site, just about the end of the battery life of the blackboxes.

From all the slips and leaks and the false leads, a picture can actually be painted to tell a better story of what happened to MH370 and how it ended up in the Antarctics and still untraceable, and its blackboxes still dead.