- Well-planned theft. Objection: there seems no way the craft could have been landed undetected. How could that have been the plan?
- Attack.
- Mechanical failure. Objection: it was awfully well timed.
- Pilot suicide. Objection: There seems no motive and no sense in the method. If suicide was the intention, surely the pilot could simply have crashed the plane in the Gulf of Thailand?
I suppose it could have been accident, but this is unlikely. Avionics do not usually fail in a way that also disables flight deck crews. The timing — just the right moment for the craft to be lost — is also unlikely. Still, unlikely things do somethings happen. (Since I wrote this article, but before I published it, Chris Goodfellow has proposed electrical fire as a possible accidental failure mode. I can see that as a possibility, but the timing is awfully suspicious.)
Why…? Now we go into cloud-cuckoo land. Provoking an international media event, raising anger and drawing attention to something — but what? —, seems the most likely motivation. Cui bono?
1 comment:
Someone said there were lithium batteries on board. Another experienced pilot raised the possibility of fire from e.g. a front nose wheel. the disabling was what he would expect from a fire, as well as the left turn towards a known airport. There is the question of cell phones but how good are the towers etc in the area? If the pilot and co-pilot made the left turn but were overcome by smoke, the plane would simply continue on till it ran out of fuel.
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