STILL MISSING Investigators could blame pilot

Posted on 02/18/2016

Investigators hunting for the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 are apparently ready to officially blame a rogue pilot (though not necessarily the captain) for the disaster if the plane is not found in the current search zone. The move by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) would revive a theory first suggested soon after the Malaysian Airline jet vanished nearly two years ago.

Officials later based the $176 million search on the assumption the Boeing 777 with 239 people on board, became a ghost plane, flying on autopilot until its fuel ran out after the crew and passengers were incapacitated.Using satellite and radar data, the potential crash site was narrowed to an area of the southern Indian Ocean spanning some 46,000 square miles, west of Australia.The rogue pilot theory does not alter the plane's final flight path because that has been verified by satellite data. But it means that someone at the controls could have glided the plane hundreds of miles past the current search zone after it ran out of fuel.The theory does not automatically blame the Captain and co-pilot as it allows for someone else to have entered the cockpit to commandeer the jet.The ASTB estimates the new crash zone would be three times bigger than originally estimated.ATSB has spent nearly a year scouring the area zone and will have completed its operation in about ten weeks.  If still unsuccessful, the official report is set to dismiss the current theory and return to the rogue pilot hypothesis to explain the search's failure.Martin Dolan, the chief commissioner of the ATSB, told The Times, “We're not at that point yet, but sooner or later we will be and we will have to explain to governments what the alternative is.“And the alternative is, frankly, that despite all the evidence, the possibility that someone was at the controls of that aircraft and gliding it becomes a more significance possibility if we eliminate all of the current search area.”Australia is leading a high-tech search using state-of-the-art sonar detection equipment, searching for any sign of wreckage on the seabed at crushing depths approaching 16,400 feet. But they have been unable to locate an exact crash site, which could help solve the mystery, and the cause of the disappearance remains one of aviation's greatest riddles.Two years after its disappearance, the only hard evidence the Malaysian airliner met a tragic end is a two-metre-long MH370 wing part found last July on a beach on the French-held Indian Ocean island of Reunion.Relatives of those aboard MH370 have criticized the airline and Malaysian government for failing to provide answers and the case has sparked a range of conspiracy theories, including that the plane was commandeered and landed safely somewhere else.