Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah.Credit:Facebook
In a meticulous new reportpublished byThe Atlantic,William Langewiesche,a former national correspondent for the magazine,gives credence to that theory.
Friends of Zaharie Ahmad Shah,who was the captain of MH370,toldThe Atlantic that the 53-year-old pilot was depressed and lonely,engaged in one-sided flirting with young women on Facebook,and spent much of his non-flying time pacing empty rooms inside his home. One close friend of Shah even said he believed the pilot crashed the plane.
MH370 deviated from its planned route at 1.25am local time,more than 40 minutes after take-off. Then the flight went on a westward path across Malaysia,rather than north to its final destination of Beijing.
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Such a sudden deviation would have been noticed by the plane’s 200-plus passengers. Langewiesche reported that Shah likely depressurised the cabin to subdue any rebellion.
"An intentional depressurisation would have been an obvious way – and probably the only way – to subdue a potentially unruly cabin in an aeroplane that was going to remain in flight for hours to come,"Langewiesche,who is also a pilot,wrote.
The cabin masks have about 15 minutes of supply at altitudes below 13,000 feet,according toThe Atlantic,but MH370 stayed at a cruising altitude of 40,000 feet for at least an hour.
Meanwhile,Shah could simply put on one of the four oxygen masks,which have hours of supply,available in the cockpit.