As readers of this blog well know, I’ve spent the last five years delving into every aspect of the disappearance of MH370, looking at everything from orbital decay and flight dynamics to marine worms and garbage patches. I’ve presented a lot of my findings in this space, and worked through some of the questions and difficulties with the help of a superb group of readers. Much of what I’ve found, however, had to be kept under wraps for fear of undermining further reporting.
With the five-year anniversary upon us I feel that the time has come to put it all together into a single narrative that lays out what we know and suggests how we can best make sense of it. And so, ladies and gentlemen, I here present:
Over the course of the next few days, I’ll be walking readers through some of my most important findings. If you want to cut to the chase, you can click through the image above and get a copy of the ebook right now. It hardly needs saying but I would be extremely grateful to anyone who does and even more so if you leave a positive comment. {here endeth the shill}
The quest to unravel the mystery of MH370 is something that all of us have poured ourselves into for a very long time. At times the journey has been exciting, at times it has been exasperating or even despair-inducing. But the goal has always seemed important. And bit by bit we’ve steadily made progress, building up an impressive depth of knowledge about every aspect of the case.
Five years on, many people in the wider world believe that MH370 is an unsolvable mystery. That’s due in no small part to the fact that the two countries primarily in charge of the case, Australia and Malaysia, have given up. Adding to the general dismay is the fact that countless ideas have been put forward, some of high quality and some of low; the press has generally been unable to tell the difference, so everything gets lumped together into the stew of conspiracy theory. “Nothing is true and everything is possible,” as the saying goes.
Those of us who’ve had the opportunity to dive into the technical minutiae have a much clearer picture of where things stand. We’ve worked through which things are possible and which are not. By carefully tackling the evidence at hand, I believe we can arrive at a well-founded understanding of what happened to the plane and why.
The most important thing I can say about the case is this: it has been a collective undertaking, and I am extremely grateful to my collaborators, the readers of this blog. I haven’t always seen eye to eye with everyone all the time, and many of you may may feel that at times I’ve been kind of an asshole. But I hope not! At any rate I appreciate your patience, your enthusiasm, your ideas, and above all your determination to see this thing through to some kind of an ending.
More to come soon…
@ Jeff
Wow, what a nice cover. Great design and catchy title!
Yes, nice cover.
I tried to buy it but it doesn’t seem to be available (yet?) in my country (At the moment The Netherlands). Maybe later.
Congrats! We’ve all been looking forward to this!
Small typo here in the blog post:
“…By carefully tackling the evidence at hand, I believe we can arrive at a well-founded understand of what happened to the plane and why.”
should be “understanding”
Thank you @DG — and thanks for the catch.
@Gysbreght, Sorry, that’s weird–looking at my dashboard it’s available in several European countries but not the Netherlands for some reason.
Will it appear in the ibook store Jeff?
Looking forward to the read-
Good job Mate, congratulations and best of luck with it
@Jeff Wise: I’ll be in France shortly. Is it available there?
It is on Amazon dot in (India).
Oh, wonderful! Any plans for a physical release, or just the ebook?
@Ethan, Thank you! It is now available on Amazon, the link is: https://amzn.to/2XxboX4
@Gysbreght, According to my Amazon dashboard it should be available in the US, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands (though I know you’ve had problems), Japan, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Australia, and India.
@Will, Thanks! I think I will do a paperback very soon.
Thanks Jeff. Tried it again – Amazon.de shows cover, title and author, with “This title is not available for your country/region.” I’ll try again when in France.
Jeff – started reading the book – you did a great job of making a confusing timeline clear, and introducing the technical aspects. Curious why you didn’t mention early on the few pieces of debris that have (in my opinion – suspiciously) since been found? Or are you leaving that until later and I haven’t gotten there yet? 🙂
@DG, Thanks! To keep things as clear and simple as possible I laid everything out as chronologically as possible. The first piece of debris, the flaperon, turns up in Chapter 15.
@Gysbreght, I appreciate your perseverance.
@Jeff
Thanks for giving a complete picture in one narrative. Any discussion of MH370 has to consider the roles of the Russian and Ukrainians. There is no way they are sitting quietly in their seats while Shah flies to nowhere.
Like the US election, Russia wants as many false narratives as possible to dilute the truth.
What do you think of the possibility that they crash landed in Kazakhstan?
I lived in Shanghai for 7 years and have flown out of KL, Singapore, Bangkok, Manila, Hong Kong, Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo. I’ve yet to see overnight Asian flights where the passengers quietly go to sleep. The lights stay on and the stewards are selling duty free. Chinese passengers have to be told repeatedly to turn off cell phones. The strangest thing is that almost no cell messages were sent after plane was loaded before departure. Meal service and movies begin almost immediately. Everyone is still awake when the plane turns at IGARI.
Finally even agreeing with your re-creation, what’s the motive? The only thing that makes sense is that someone lost a ton of money with 1MDB and they fired 2 warning shots.
Read the whole thing today. You did a hell of a job. It managed to enthrall me and freak me out at the same time. I got friends to start reading today. Minor typos aside, you’ve done a really masterful job with the research and the narrative.
While I’m not 100% convinced by the speculative scenario, I think you dismantle what might be called the primary story pretty comprehensively. And the social media stuff? That made my ing jaw drop. Truly stunning.
Anyway, you deserve a lot of credit for your work. I don’t see how anyone could read this without being deeply unsettled. And no matter what we think of the range of possibilities, we’re left with this fact – a sub-particle of fact that is inescapable at this point: whoever took MH370 really, really, REALLY did not want to be found. That should chill us all.
@Trip:
Agreed.
Hi Jeff,
On your “Contact Information” page, it seems the form there is not working. It reads: [si-contact-form form=’1′]
Rgds,
Tom
@Tom, Thanks. I was having some problems with the site a month or two ago and threw out a whole bunch of plugins, must have thrown out the contact form.
@Trip, Really interesting observation. That lack of cell messages has been noted before and I don’t think anyone has any good answers.
As to the possibility of crash landing in Kazakhstan, it’s a possibility. They definitely would have been low on fuel. Nobody’s seen any evidence of a crash site in satellite images, but it’s a big place…
Thanks, @Michael! Really appreciat your kind words. If you could let me know about any typos I’d be grateful.
Tks Jeff,
What’s the best what o let you know of typos?
Tom
@Tom, email would be great, jeff [at] jeffwise.net
I just bought it on Amazon a few minutes ago, and I’ve already gotten my $3.99 worth. I jumped right to the good parts first, i.e., a search of Brodskii. Wow. Great job Jeff! I’ll be up all night poring over this masterpiece.
@Sunken Deal, Thank you!
@Jeff
Where does the heat map terminate on a northern route? If it was a hijack gone wrong and it crashed, where would that site be located? Has anyone searched a grid on google earth? Maybe the cosmodome was being prepared for a flight that never arrived. Could lowering the planes elevation and leveling out allow the 3 suspects to parachute?
@Trip:
What matters is whether the bad guys could have thought they could jump from the plane at low altitude and minimum flying speed. Whether they succeeded is something else.
Minimum flying speed is the stickshaker speed of about 150 kts IAS at low altitude.
BTW Got the book and am reading it. Got to chapter 8 last night. Found it well written, complex issues well explained.
Read both your books Jeff (kindle UK) and while not in any way up to completely understanding the technical detail, your presentation is simple and logical.
Your arguments on the geopolitics resonate and your scenario for the hijack plausible. My only question … and I may have missed something… would the rebreathing devices have passed airport security for carry on luggage?
Keep up the good work !
@Sally, Thanks! The part in “Speculative Scenario” about Brodsky carrying masks was imaginary, but based on the fact that both he and Deineka are known to have been scuba divers and that depressurization is a way that a small team of hijackers could neutralize 200+ passengers and crew. Also, if Brodsky went into the E/E bay he would have access to the flight crew’s oxygen tank, while Chustrak and Deineka sitting in the back would have access to the flight crew’s emergency oxygen bottles.
@all, Closing comments here, please add your thoughts to the most recent post. Thank you!