Flight MH370: former Boeing 777 pilot points to sabotage

Plane would have continued flying to Beijing, even if flight crew were incapacitated, says Byron Bailey

LAST UPDATED AT 12:49 ON THU 4 DEC 2014

Missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 could only have swerved off course due to sabotage, a retired Boeing 777 pilot has claimed.

The plane is believed to be located along the so-called 'seventh arc' in the southern Indian Ocean, after it veered off its flight path from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on 8 March.

Byron Bailey, a former RAAF fighter pilot, charter pilot and senior captain with Emirates, said that even if something happened to the flight crew, the plane would have flown itself to Beijing via its pre-programmed computer.

"For it to alter course and fly a different route as alleged would require the deliberate manual intervention of someone with considerable expertise of FMS [flight management computers] protocols, which suggests a pre-planned intention," he writes in Australia's Daily Telegraph.

If the flight had crashed in an accident, "masses of debris would be floating around for a long time afterwards", says Bailey.

He also explains that the 777 has 80 computers and three sets of nearly every system on board – including three radios, three radar transponders, three autopilots and three flight management computers – to ensure a "practically fail safe" operation.

"A failure of one will result in transfer, usually automatically, to another. This means for air traffic control to lose secondary radar contact with MH370 someone had to deactivate all three by manually selecting them to off," says the former pilot.

He cast doubt on the theory of an electrical failure, pointing to the plane's five generators, and ruled out a fire or decompression, saying that there would have been time to contact air traffic control.

"Then there is the hijack theory," he says. "On board were two pilots and 14 cabin crew. None of the passengers came under suspicion and the flight deck is reinforced and kept locked. Airlines have security protocols in place to prevent unauthorised access to the flight deck."

Bailey says he personally believes the plane is still intact and in 6,000m of water. He adds: "If we search long enough it will be found."

Source: http://www.theweek.co.uk/world-news/flight-mh370/57641/mh370-details-of-who-was-on-missing-plane-are-being-withheld-says