Two of Zaharie’s sisters are friends of mine and during a face to face meeting with them in December 2016 they surprised me by revealing after listening to the ATC audio, they could identify the final three radio calls by MH370 were made by their brother and his voice was slurred. They volunteered this fact unprompted.

 

ATC audio tapes appear to confirm there was a bizarre exchange of radio communications with MH370:

12:50:06 ATC Lumpur Control ~ Malaysian Three Seven Zero climb flight level three five zero

12:50:09 MAS370 ~ [acknowleged] Flight level three five zero Malaysian Three Seven Zero

01:01:14 MAS370 ~ Malaysian Three Seven Zero... [No additional comment]

01:01:17 MAS370 ~ Malaysian Three Seven Zero, ah... maintaining three five zero

01:07:55 MAS370 ~ ah Seven... Three Seven Zero, ... maintaining level three five zero

01:08:00 ATC Lumpur Control ~ Malaysian Three Seven Zero? [No Response by MH370]

01:19:24 ATC Lumpur Control ~ Malaysian Three Seven Zero contact Ho Chi Minh 120 decimal 9 Good Night...

01:19:29 MAS370 ~ Good Night Malaysian Three Seven Zero [MH370 failed to give standard protocol read back of ATC instructions]

This exchange with ATC was a clear indication of pilot hypoxia

Conspiracy theorists point to the fact there were multiple different ATC recordings with different background noises. That is because MH370 was passed off from one controller to another in five different rooms with five different recording devices. These different recordings had to be spliced together so there is nothing particularly sinister about this fact. More important is that the content itself was extraordinary.

I checked back through historical news reports. Malaysia’s Government investigators insist it was the co-pilot’s voice in the last radio call.

Those who knew Zaharie well disagreed. In 2014 his wife Faizah Khanum disputed the audio tapes insisting that the last radio call was made by her husband.

 

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370: Pilot’s Wife Speaks, Drops Potential Bombshell Revelation

MH370 ~ ATC Verbal Aberrations: Was Captain Zaharie Drugged or Recorded?

Interference, static, mumbling and then silence: Last moments of Flight MH370 revealed

Zaharie’s sisters had very little idea of the hypoxia theory nor the symptoms of hypoxia. In fact they were more inclined to follow various theories that MH370 had been hijacked to the Maldives - however I digress.

Here we have the first clue that hypoxia began before MH370 ever reached IGARI.

 

 

How do we know MH370 was a hypoxic flight?

Analysis of the satellite handshake signal at 00:11 UTC disclosed a deceleration of 0.315 knots/second indicating the first engine had flamed out. At this point any conscious pilot should have lowered the nose and established a glide.

In stead at 00:19 UTC there was a log on request by the SDU (satellite antenna manager) which implied the aircraft was tumbling out of control. A log on request would only follow a power failure and that could only have resulted after a dual flame out initiated an automated APU start.

(APU = Auxilliary Power Unit, a turbine powered generator in the tail which starts automatically by battery if power is lost from the electrical Main Bus relays)

There were two signals received from MH370 at 00:19 UTC eight seconds apart. These were at 00:19:29 UTC and 00:19:37 UTC. Doppler BFO values for the first signal indicated MH370 was dropping at 12,000 feet per minute (“fpm”) and the second at 20,000fpm - 25,000fpm (finally updated as 25,000fpm). Either way the picture emerges that MH370 was accelerating in a dive.

Between the first and second 00:19 signals MH370 accelerated from a descent of 12,000 feet per minute (fpm) to 25,000fpm and the airframe would have experienced 60% in excess of ultimate destruction loads.

Whilst the B777 Flight Crew Training Manual (FCTM) does not stipulate a maximum rate of descent it does note an Indicated Airspeed limit in descent of 310kts IAS (Indicated Airspeed). Elsewhere in the FCTM, it relates this to an initial rate of descent of 8,000fpm. Thus one can infer that a maximum rate of descent should be around 8,000fpm at FL350.

We also know that the BTO data, or time displacement for signal return from MH370 revealed no difference between the last two signals. In other words MH370 was in virtually the same location, whilst the Doppler BFO data showed MH370 was moving very fast in the vertical axis and receding away from the satellite at 25,000 feet per minute.

G-forces acting on MH370

The 00:19 signals were part of a handshake protocol which was never completed by MH370. The expected third log on signal, which never came would have confirmed the In- Flight-Entertainment (IFE) system log on. It is very likely MH370 broke up in mid air before the third signal was possible. At a rate of descent of 25,000fpm the stress on MH370’s airframe would have been about 6g. In other words six times the normal gravitational load. Under FAA Limit Load Factor for Part 25 Commercial airliners are certified to withstand+2.5g/-1.5g which would make the B777 ultimate destruction load +3.75g/-2.25g.

Supposing therefore that the load on MH370 at 00:19:37 UTC was exactly 6g then MH370 experienced 160% of the load guaranteed to destroy the airframe.

A good example of he G-force effect that MH370 must have suffered was the flight of China Airlines Flight 006 which went into a steep spiral dive following multiple engine flame out in February 1985. In the accident report the Boeing 747SP’s Flight Engineer said that the G-forces were so great that he could not lift his hand to reach the controls. It was only by the conscious intervention of the Captain in pulling up the nose to decrease airspeed that control was regained. It took 30 seconds to recover Flight 006.

https://www.ntsb.gov/investigati...

Flight Data Recorders on the Air China flight showed the aircraft approached 5g forces before the data itself became unreliable, affected by the same G-forces.

The China Airlines aircraft began to descend at 10:14:33 UTC. Between 10:14:50 and 10:15:23 the aircraft dropped 10,313ft. Thus for this period the rate of descent was 18,750 fpm or 75% of the rate of descent MH370 experienced.

At just 75% the rate of MH370’s descent, Air China’s B747SP experienced 5g forces. Therefore we can confidently say therefore MH370 must have suffered 6g forces, or more than the maximum rated destruction forces

Thanks to Seattle lawyer Blaine Gibson’s efforts to hunt for debris we also have objective evidence that MH370 broke up in flight, not on impact with the sea. Blaine discovered a triangular piece of carbon fibre panel from the leading edge RH stabilizer (MH370’s elevator) on a beach in Mozambique.

All except one Hi-Lock fastener had been ejected from holes on the trailing edge which attached the spar beam. These fasteners had been ejected by flutter vibration whilst MH370 was still in flight. Then the panel was torn backwards in the slipstream from the leading edge. This was a two step process that could only have taken place in flight.

There is no way a Boeing 777 could experience 6g forces without structural failure.

Where were the Debris?

By implication therefore if MH370 broke up at altitude then a huge amount of debris must have showered down over a wide area.

 

Several people have reasonably asked then where were the debris?

Interestingly MH370 debris were being tracked by the AMSA before the search area was abandoned in March 2014,

The fact is from March 16 to March 26, 2014 there were multiple sightings of very large pieces of debris in two distinct clusters which by March 24 were drifting east 67nm apart. First spotted was a 24m (80 foot) object as big as a wing. Then on March 18 a Chinese satellite spotted another object 22.5m (75 feet) across. Between these on March 20 three French satellites captured photographic and radar imagery of 122 large & highly reflective floating objects. That same night a US Navy P-8 Poseidon aircraft photographed objects with infra-red cameras ranging from 5m (16ft) to 10m (33ft) across. This image was released by the Australian Government in response to a Freedom of Information Request for imagery from search planes.

Based on advice by Chinese analysts who reverse calculated the drift of all debris sighted up to March 20, 2014, MH370 likely impacted within 300km of 45.30S, 85.30E. In conversations with Grace Subathrai Nathan whose mother was lost on the flight and who is herself now a campaigner for MH370 families, I have urged those relatives to crowdfund to acquire their own vessel and eventually equip it for a sonar search. They indicate a possible joint announcement on the next anniversary of MH370’s loss in 2017.

On March 25, 2014 all search aircraft were grounded and then at Malaysia’s request (according to the ATSB) the southern search area where debris were sighted was abandoned. First the search area was shifted to directly due west of Perth for just a mater of days before it was announced the research vessel MV Ocean Shield had detected underwater pings at Zenith Ridge 1,340nm north of the debris locations. To this day it is unclear why MV Ocean Shield was looking so far away. These underwater pings were proven to be false leads.

Interestingly radio buoys known as drifters were tracked from this southern search area to Reunion island within the 15 months it took to discover MH370’s Flaperon there.

Since 09 March 2017 it has come to my attention that there was a previously undisclosed CTBTO underwater acoustic detection from Cape Leeuwin of an impact on the sea at 00:23 UTC on a heading of 234 degrees.

Known Hypoxic Flights

From advice provided by Australia’s DST Group, the ATSB now conclude MH370 suffered a hypoxic flame out. Roger Lee in his answer to this question correctly identified that golfer Stewart Payne’s Learjet crash in 1999 is the classic example. Windows of that aircraft were frosted by ice on the inside. That however was near the end of Payne’s hypoxic flight just before his Learjet flamed out. What interests us is what happened at the beginning?

Payne Stewart Plane plane crash

1999 South Dakota Learjet Crash

To answer the original question, on the advice of Zaharie’s sisters it seems possible that whilst the pilots did turn back from IGARI deliberately they were already suffering from impaired logic. An example of a hypoxic flight that demonstrates impaired logic was Kalitta 66 where the captain declared an emergency but kept insisting he only needed radar vectors to his destination. A very clued up Air Traffic Controller understood what was happening and ordered the crew to descend to lower altitude. MH370 had no such luck. My friend Sylvia describes Kalitta 66 here:

Hypoxia on Kalitta 66

It seems increasingly likely that MH370 suffered a gradual decompression rather than a sudden decompression, or rather that it failed to properly pressurize in the climb.

In theory had the Boeing 777 sensed a drop in duct pressure from the air conditioning system then an alarm should have sounded in the cockpit as pressure dropped to 14,000ft pressure altitude.

A question arises in my mind if this theory (MH370 failed to pressurize) is correct, whether MH370 ever correctly pressurised above 14,000ft, or alternately did MH370 partially pressurize but to a cabin altitude of say 25,000ft, but far short of the actual 35,000ft it reached?

If for example MH370 only pressurized to circa 25,000ft cabin altitude, then that would not have triggered any alarm for the pilots, but could still have resulted in unconsciousness.

In Helios flight 552 the aircraft failed to pressurize in the climb and pilots misidentified the alarm however there is no hint that there was any alarm on the flight deck from MH370’s ATC audio recordings.

Smoke in the MEC?

I stumbled across a possible explanation for the lack of alarm on the flight deck when I read the accident report for United Airlines flight UA955 which suffered electrical fire on the ground at Heathrow in February 2007 inside the avionics bay (known as the “MEC”):

“The ground handling crew observed smoke emanating from the MEC vent at the front of the aircraft and alerted the flight crew. Two minutes later ATC advised that smoke had been seen coming from the aircraft and that the fire service had been requested to attend as a precaution.”

https://assets.publishing.servic...

UNITED AIRLINES flight UA955 - Aviation Accident Database

This alerted me that possibly the same electrical failure that caused loss of communications before 18:25 UTC may also have led to hypoxia.

What if MH370 suffered an electrical failure filling the MEC with smoke and as pilots turned back for Kuala Lumpur with limited onboard systems, the aircraft itself compounded their problems by opening a vent to depressurise the aircraft?

 

 

What if it was actually the plane that killed them?

The public may be unaware that in a Boeing 777 unlike in the cargo compartment, there is no fire extinguishing system for the avionics bay. There is a smoke detection system but that does not alert pilots to the presence of FIRE or SMOKE in the MEC.

Instead, the aircraft autonomously switches air conditioning from AUTO to EQUIP COOLING OVRD. This closes a duct to the cargo compartment and opens a vent from the MEC to the outside, using differential pressure from inside the cabin to ventilate smoke overboard. This same process is quite capable of depressurizing a Boeing 777 in flight.

This design error in the Boeing 777 is on every one of the 1,500+ Boeing 777 aircraft flying around the world today, raising a serious question whether the FAA type certificate for the B777 should be withdrawn in light of the MH370 disaster?

 

Electrical Problem Clues

There were further clues to electrical malfunctions on MH370. So called BTO jitters were identified in the satellite data from ACARS exchanges with MH370 before take-off. These inferred that MH370 was jumping all over the place on the surface of the earth and were uncommon phenomenon in a normal aircraft transmission.

ATSB’s Satellite Working Group (SWG) sought to dismiss these BTO Jitters as nothing significant and downplayed the degree of signal error by relating MH370’s jitters to experiments performed with properly working systems.

What if the systems on MH370 were not working normally, but rather subject to abnormal voltage fluctuations?

Then it would be a fair inference these Jitters were indicative of imminent electrical failure or overheating problems before take off and possibly smoke in the MEC.

Boeing 777 Pressurisation Issues

If MH370 was suffering electrical problems and smoke during the climb then due to an automated response to vent smoke overboard by redirecting cabin air pressure to the MEC, the aircraft itself may have been failing to pressurize in the climb.

More importantly because this would have been an automated process, the aircraft may have had the depressurization alarm inhibited or degraded during the climb. Only Boeing can answer this and they aren’t talking.

One reason for Boeing’s silence is the financial implication. This implies that no Boeing 777 flying in the world today is fail safe in the event of electrical fire in the MEC and therefore fails to meet standards of airworthiness.

If there were real integrity in the US Government and the FAA regulatory body, then all Boeing 777s should have been grounded when MH370 went missing.

Boeing Discovers Cause of Sudden Losses of Pressure by 777's

During test flights of the Boeing 777 prior to service there were two serious pressurisation failures. One was in February 1995. That plane in which four among the 19-member crew were hurt, a B777 test plane already painted with United Airlines colors, was flying at 43,000 feet near Seattle with its electrical systems running on batteries, to simulate a generator failure.

One of two air-conditioning systems was shut down, putting extra pressure on the other. Remember there is evidence advanced by Australia’s DSTG that MH370 was experiencing an electrical failure. During the test flight with failure of a duct clamp, a check valve, which was supposed to stop the air from flowing in the wrong direction, failed. A valve which isolates the Forward cargo hold from the MEC when EQUIP COOLING OVRD operates to vent cabin pressure failed whilst two engineers were down inside the cargo hold.

This incident is directly relevant to MH370 and the possibility of electrical failure.

Australia’s DSTG have previously identified that prior to 18:25 UTC MH370 was operating without power to the AC Main bus relays just like the Seattle test flight in 1995.

Sudden or Partial Decompression?

So let us relate this to what passengers may have experienced. Passengers and cabin crew may, or may not have noticed passenger oxygen masks drop down as MH370’s cabin pressure dropped to a pressure altitude of 14,000ft.

I say may because if the aircraft inhibited its own alarms to ventilate the MEC, or if the sensors in the pressure duct were tricked by failure to pressurize at all, or there was say, a partial pressurisation above 14,000ft cabin altitude where oygen masks do deploy, then Gasper masks may never have deployed at all.

Had these masks deployed cabin crew would have reacted immediately to ensure their own oxygen supply. Most cabin crew would have been in galley areas so early in the flight, thus they were very close to walk around oxygen bottles with 30 minute supply. I have checked with a Malaysian Airlines Flight Attendant friend and she assures me that cabin crew would not interfere with or try to contact the cockpit, at least not initially. There was no such standard procedure at MAS.

Had the Gaspers deployed then passengers would of course have experienced alarm, confusion and as it continued, rising anxiety. Gaspers on MAS aircraft were supplied from oxygen chemical generators with between 8–11 minutes of supply.

Had the Gaspers not deployed then passengers may have become drowsy & cold. Some may have experienced euphoria, but then as the situation continued on many would start to feel headaches & breathlessness until loss of consciousness.

An example of typical symptoms was on another hypoxic flight; Kalitta 861 which happened in 1994. In that flight the Captain who was wearing an oxygen mask still succumbed to loss of consciousness.

Event Details

There is an example when a Boeing 777’s Air Conditioning system failed at altitude because a software failure led to the pressure duct valve closing. Crew should have had an alert but received none because the warning system was deceived.

FAA Airworthiness Directive for Boeing 777 aircraft

Partial Decompression - Gradual Incapacitation

If the decompression was gradual and there was only a partial decompression masks would not have deployed. In the circumstance of such partial decompression there could have been 15–20 minutes before full loss of consciousness on board MH370.

Temperature in the cabin would have dropped. Outside Air Temperature (OAT) at IGARI was -44 degrees centigrade that night. This means if the MEC vent was reducing cabin pressure then the cabin temperature was also reducing. It is worth noting therefore that in a B777 Air Conditioning system, if the duct temperature drops the Air Supply Cabin Pressure Controller (ASCPC) sensor is designed to close the Pressure Regulating Shut-Off Valve (PSROV). In plain language when sensors detect a drop in cabin temperature it closes the valve regulating bleed air required to keep the cabin pressurised.

If there were sudden decompression at that altitude, people would have died from hypothermia very quickly, in less than 4 minutes at -44 deg C. However I assume there was a slower, more gradual process, that it took 20–30 minutes from MH370 reaching cruise altitude before everyone was unconscious.

If passenger oxygen masks failed to deploy then nobody may have even realised what was happening.

 

 

At such altitudes, once unconscious there was no way to breath properly. Crew and passengers who lapsed into unconsciousness would have expired from a combination of oxygen starvation to the brain and intense cold.

If I am correct, that smoke venting from the MEC caused depressurization then it is also possible that burning which caused smoke to vent cabin pressure also ceased around 18:25 UTC when electrical power was restored to the SDU and later MH370 did pressurize properly.

If that was the case then sadly it is logical to assume nobody aboard was left alive well before 2:25am (18:25 UTC). It would be an irony to think that electrical burning which caused the hypoxia may even have resolved itself allowing the plane to properly pressurize, but only after everyone had expired.

If this is the correct interpretation for MH370, then it raises serious questions about the airworthiness safety of all Boeing 777 aircraft.

The most merciful thing one can say is this: When it was tumbling from the sky at 25,000 feet per minute, nobody was alive to experience it.

Personal Request

When I first wrote this explanation I never expected it to strike a chord with so many people. I am quite devoted to solving MH370 for the relatives of victims many of whom have become friends of mine. I genuinely feel that there was a deliberate effort to deceive the public over MH370. I feel it is very important for aviation safety to discredit the false narrative over MH370 and force authorities to continue their efforts until we know the whole truth. Because this article applies pressure to keep searching for answers, if you have found this article useful & interesting, please would you also take the time to share it on Twitter & Facebook to keep up the pressure?