About MH370wiki/Position Statement
The following section is a Position Statement on the topic of Pilot Suicide in the context of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 and this website.
Firstly, it is acknowledged that the cause of several aircraft accidents prior to MH370 have been attributed to pilot suicide. In each instance the consequence has been the death of all on board within a short time of the decision by the pilot flying to rapidly descend towards the ocean, a river or the ground. Following flight MH370 the possibility of pilot suicide was publicised and may even have influenced another case of pilot suicide causing the death of all on board when an aircraft impacted a mountain. So it has happened in the past and may happen again unless steps are taken to prevent it.
However, in the case of flight MH370, the aircraft remained airborne for hours beyond the time of a decision to change course; there were in fact several distinct turns made and whilst these seem to be deliberate actions by a person in control of the aircraft the purpose is not known; and since the wreckage of the aircraft has not been located there is no evidence from a flight data recorder or voice recorder which could provide meaningful explanations. This chain of events is unprecedented.
For MH370, the pilot suicide theory provides a simple explanation, easily understood, which has been promoted by various journalists, authors, investigators and bloggers. However, the disappearance of MH370 is not a simple event and a pilot-suicide theory does not correlate with all of the known facts. Some of the people pushing variations of a suicide scenario have even ignored technical aspects of the flight, satellite data for example, because it is too complicated. That is not acceptable. Some documentaries continue to build a case using 'facts' which were believable when first stated but have been revised over time as data has been analysed and verified. This is unprofessional. Some experts, pilots or aviation journalists even, have repeated the suicide/mass murder theory so often that they have become biased to the extent that it is not possible for them to objectively assess alternate views.
It is also acknowledged that the possibility of third party involvement, a scenario involving hostile takeover, does not correlate with the independent creation of data points in the south Indian Ocean on Captain Shah's personal flight simulator. However, a solution has already been proposed in the article Hostile takeover or suicide mission?.
Development of this website is ongoing. It has taken hundreds of hours to get this far and one could anticipate many more hours to fully develop the 'big picture' whilst simultaneously decoding the complexity of aircraft systems, communication systems, technical terms, acronyms, and aviation jargon. There is no way that such an investment in time to research, collate, analyse and present the information is personally justifiable if the disappearance of flight MH370 was an unpalatable instance of pilot suicide and mass murder.
If the wreckage of 9M-MRO is located, and if the flight data recorders are retrieved, and if any meaningful data is recovered, and if that conclusively proves that one or both of the two Malaysia Airlines pilots planned and executed a suicidal mission then that would have to be accepted. However, unless that happens, the innocence of both professional pilots should be maintained and other plausible explanations or motives need to be considered. There is no doubt that each change of direction of MH370 required a human decision. The diversion from the Kuala Lumpur-to-Beijing flight path was deliberate. The question is by whom, and why? The same question should be asked for each subsequent change of direction and the answers may be different. We may never know, but one thing is certain: pilot suicide is not the only plausible scenario.
Grant