Flight MH370. What is known and what is unknown – Ouest-France

This is what is known and what is not yet known in the mysterious disappearance of MH370:

What we know:

– We know that March 8, 2014, a Boeing 777 Malaysia Airlines took off from Kuala Lumpur to 00 h 41 local time (16 h 41 GMT) with 227 passengers, including 153 Chinese, and twelve crew towards Beijing.

– We know that the device is driven by Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, a respected commander with 33 years of experience in the national carrier of Malaysia. His co-driver is Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27 years.

– We know that just prior to entering the airspace of Vietnam, someone sends a final message of the cockpit air traffic controllers Malaysia: ” Good evening, Malaysian 370 “. It is 01 h 19 (17 h 19 GMT).

– We know that 30 to 01 h (17 h 30 GMT) radar systems, such as transponder, were disconnected. However, the device still was on military radar at 02 h 15 (18 h 15 GMT), changing course towards Malaysia and then to the Indian Ocean.

– We know that debris from the wing of the aircraft found on the island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean 16 months later is that of the Boeing flight MH370 Malaysia Airlines disappeared March 8, 2014, according to the Malaysian Prime Minister, Najib Razak, citing Thursday international investigators.

– We know that the battery of the beacon of the device had expired more than a year before takeoff and that it made much more difficult, according to experts, research in the Indian Ocean.

What is still unclear:

– We still do not know what caused the

sudden change aircraft heading since neither the crew nor the machine’s radar systems have given prior indication and that night the weather was set fair.

– We do not know if any of the drivers is the cause of the accident: one of the best estimate according to experts. Zaharie was an opposition activist in Malaysia and Fariq had let go of passengers in the cockpit during a recent flight, in violation of rules. But nothing in the past drivers suggests that they could be capable of mass murder.

– We do not know if he could be a diversion or an attack by a terrorist group, since there has never been a claim.

– We do not know why the machine’s radar systems have been disconnected and that: an act that appears to have been “deliberate” according Malaysia.

– We still do not know exactly where the plane crashed, although the discovery of the remains of the wing should help confirm the current search area. We are still far from being able to find the black box that would know the causes of the accident.