The sudden disappearance of Malaysia Airlines MH370 has left the experts and investigators baffled. The aircraft carrying 239 passengers and crew vanished off the radars early Saturday. Ten countries have begun a massive hunt for the jet to little avail so far.
A total of 34 aircrafts and 46 ships have been deployed to hunt for the flight and the search has been expanded to remote parts of mainland Malaysia.
Investigators are not ruling out any possibilities in the search for the plane that was en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur. The aircraft's pilot did not make any distress calls before it went off radar. Some speculate the plane might have gone down to sea whereas some say it might be an act of terrorism.
Possible Theories Followed the Investigators:
Disintegrated mid-air: Speculations about the plane facing sudden catastrophe at 35, 000 feet above sea level has not been ruled out by the investigators. The mere fact that the aircraft was cruising at such high altitude makes experts believe that it might have exploded and the wreckage could have spread across a vast area making it difficult to be detected.
"The fact that we are unable to find any debris so far appears to indicate that the aircraft is likely to have disintegrated at around 35,000 feet (10,600 metres)," a source involved in the investigations told the Sydney Morning Herald.
The theory is similar to that of the 2009 Air France jet that disappeared over the Atlantic. The rescue team took five days to detect bits of wreckage and next two years to find the entire debris.
Terrorist Attack: Another major theory the investigators are checking is whether the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines is an act of terrorism. Two suspects boarded the flight MH370 with stolen passports. Authorities suspecting foul play have been checking the CCTV footage taken from Kuala Lumpur International Airport and interrogating border guards.
"Early indications show some sort of a security lapse, but I cannot say any further right now," an official involved in the investigation told Reuters. Furthermore, the officials said that they did not rule out the possible involvement of Uighur Muslim militants. In 2011 and 2012, Malaysia deported some Uighurs to China for carrying false passports. Last week knife-wielding Uighur militants killed at least 29 people in a Chinese train station.
"With two stolen passports (on board), you'd have to suspect that that's (terrorism) one of the likely options," said Jason Middleton, the head of the Sydney-based University of New South Wales' School of Aviation, reports The Belfast Telegraph.
Mechanical Failure: Experts say that sudden explosion of the plane in quite unlikely in today's times. Especially with the Boeing 777-200 model that is known to have safety track record compared to any other aircraft.
"From a crack, there can be a whole structure breakdown that allows for no response. But in the last two to three decades there have been next to nil such incidents," Ravi Madavaram, an aviation analyst with Frost & Sullivan, told the Agence France-Presse.
Plane Ran Out of Fuel: According to the Malaysia Airlines, the passenger aircraft was fuelled for at least eight hours of travel. It takes not more than six hours to reach Beijing from Kuala Lumpur. "If there was a fuel loss, the pilot would have enough time to call for distress signal, and to turn around and glide back to land," Madavaram told AFP.
