MH370 made sudden steep U-turn that could never have been performed by autopilot, aviation expert claims
MISSING flight MH370 vanished from radars after making a sudden, steep U-turn that could never have been performed by autopilot, an aviation expert claims.
Veteran pilot Sylvia Wrigley told The Sun Online that she believes the key to unravelling the mystery lies behind the plane's first turn.
The aviation author described the infamous U-turn as "extremely interesting".
She said: "The aircraft turned after it disappeared from secondary radar, the point at which the transponder was either turned off or failed.
"We only know what happened because it was tracked on military radar."
As a part of the investigation into the flight's doomed fate, the Malaysian government recreated the mystery turn.
The simulations determined the point where the aircraft entered and exited the turn.
Ms Wrigley says the simulations "prove that the turn was at a steep bank angle (around 35° bank) while travelling at 250 knots".
She adds that such a turn "is simply not possible using the autopilot".
"The simulation results tell us one very important thing: the aircraft was under manual control.
U-TURN 'NOT POSSIBLE USING AUTO-PILOT'
"This was not a pre-programmed route and the autopilot was disengaged.
"For a turn at that bank angle and speed, the bank-angle warnings would have sounded repeatedly and the stick-shaker would have activated about halfway through the turn.
"It would not be easy to fly a controlled turn at that angle, which tells us that the person in control of the aircraft was experienced."
Ms Wrigley's analysis backs up the claims that Malaysian captain and veteran pilot Zaharie Amad Shah was flying the aircraft when it disappeared.
In the wake of the plane's disappearance, rumours surfaced that he had locked the co-pilot out of the cockpit then crashed the plane in a murder-suicide.
AVIATION RIDDLE
Ms Wrigley believes that after the initial sharp turn, the aircraft followed a set of waypoints.
"It is likely that on-board navigation systems were in use and so it's impossible to know if someone was in the cockpit and how alert they were," she adds.
However, she notes that the Malaysian investigation "shows clearly that an experienced pilot was at the controls for the turn diverting the aircraft back towards Malaysia".
Ms Wrigley is the author of Without a Trace — a two-volume work covering aviation mysteries from 1881 to the present day.
MH370 - WHAT HAPPENED?
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 took off from Kuala Lumpur and was heading to Beijing with 239 people on board.
Passengers included Chinese calligraphers, a couple on their way home to their young sons after a long-delayed honeymoon and a construction worker who hadn't been home in a year.
But at 12.14am on March 8, 2014, Malaysia Airlines lost contact with MH370 close to Phuket island in the Strait of Malacca.
Before that, Malaysian authorities believe the last words heard from the plane, from either the pilot or co-pilot, was "Good night Malaysian three seven zero".
Satellite "pings" from the aircraft suggest it continued flying for around seven hours when the fuel would have run out.
Experts have calculated the most likely crash site around 1,000 miles west of Perth, Australia.
But a huge search of the seabed failed to find any wreckage - and there are a number of alternative theories as to its fate.
Has the engine been found?
Five pieces, thought to be from the plane, recently washed up in Madagascar.
Aviation expert Victor Iannello believes one fragment, which appears to be from the interior floorboard, is consistent with a “high-speed impact".
More than 30 bits of aircraft debris have been collected from various places around the world but only three wing fragments that washed up along the Indian Ocean have been confirmed to be from MH370.
In October 2018, a sleuth claimed he'd spotted an engine in the Cambodian jungle.
Daniel Boyer previously claimed to have found the cockpit and tail, complete with Malaysia Airlines logo, of the missing aircraft.
What are some of the theories about the Malaysia Airlines flight?
Vladimir Putin
Some feared Russian president Vladimir Putin was involved in the hijacking of MH370.
US Science writer Jeff Wise claimed Putin "spoofed" the plane's navigation data so it could fly unnoticed into Baikonur Cosmodrome so he could "hurt the West".
US shootout
French ex-airline director Marc Dugain accused the US military of shooting down the plane because they feared it had been hijacked.
A book called Flight MH370 – The Mystery also suggested that it had been shot down accidentally by US-Thai joint jet fighters during a military exercise and covered it up.
Suicide
Malaysia police chief Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar suggested the disappearance could have been the result of a suicide.
He claimed someone on board could have taken out a large life insurance package before getting on the plane, so they could treat their family or pay back the money they owed.
In hiding?
Historian and writer Norman Davies suggested MH370 could have been remotely hacked and flown to a secret location as a result of sensitive material being carried aboard the jet.
Cracks in the plane
Malaysia Airlines found a 15-inch crack in the fuselage of one of its planes, days before MH370 disappeared.
The Federal Aviation Administration insists it issued a final warning two days before the disappearance.
But the claimed the missing jet "did not have the same antenna as the rest of the Boeing 777s"; so it did not receive the warning.
Pilot planned the incident
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull unexpectedly said it was “very likely that the captain planned this shocking event”.
He claimed the pilot wanted to "create the world's greatest mystery".
Another theory claimed that he hijacked his own plane in protest of the jailing of then-Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, and as a way to destabilise the corrupt government of Najib Razak.
Another seemingly far-fetched idea said the pilot had deliberately crashed the plane to cover his track as he had parachuted out of the plane so he could spend the rest of his life with his girlfriend who was waiting in a boat in the sea.
North Korea took the plane
In the wake of the incident, South Korea noted that North Korea nearly took out a Chinese plane which had 220 passengers on board, on March 5, 2014.
Some fear Pyongyang shot the plane down, but others believe it was hijacked and diverted into the communist nation.
Victims mobile phones ringing
One theory claims that because many relatives were able to hear a ringing tone for up to four days after the crash so the doomed jet could not have smashed into the Indian Ocean.
Nineteen families have all claimed the devices of their loved ones rang for up to four days after the jet went missing.
However, wireless analysts claim that phone firms sometimes use a phantom ringing sound when the device is not active, the reports.
Crashed in the Cambodian jungle
In September 2018, British video producer Ian Wilson claimed to have found the missing aircraft using Google Maps.
Despite millions being spent on the search to located the wreckage, the Brit sleuth believes he has found the jet in a mountainous area of the Cambodian jungle.
In response, the Chinese government used observation company Space View to focus in on the high-altitude area on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.
However, the firm claim there was no sign of any plane, least of all the Malaysian Airlines aircraft which has been missing since March 2014.
An MH370 sleuth has claimed that locals in Cambodia told him they saw a plane believed to be the doomed Malaysia Airlines flight crashing in the jungle.
The plane was heading for Kazakhstan
If the jet was flying north then possible locations could stretch as fast as the border between Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to Thailand.
The Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak originally asked the Kazakhstan leader Nursultan Nazarbayev to set up a search operation in the country but this quickly got sidelined as the rescue efforts focused on the Indian Ocean.
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