Malaysia MH370 - 221Kg Lithium Batteries on board
The news that the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 should recommence is good news and was inevitable. Apart from the vital need for closure for the relatives of those on board the Aviation Industry also needs to know what happened in the interests of safety to ensure it cannot happen again.
It is interesting to note that finally some authorities have agreed that MH370 was flying on Autopilot following the probability that the crew and passengers all suffered hypoxia following a decompression, something that most pilots like myself had automatically assumed from day one.
Decompression and hypoxia was always the most probable scenario that determined the fate of MH370, characterized by the initial sudden loss of altitude in conjunction with the 180 degree turn, unusual changes in altitude and direction possibly caused by a malfunctioning flight director and autopilot, the lack of any communication from the crew coupled with the final hours of direct course flight into the Southern Indian Ocean until the aircraft eventually ran out of fuel and spiraled into the ocean are all indicators of that most probable cause.
The other theory which was put to the world and sprouted as factual by some ‘experts’ was that the aircraft had to be under someone’s control, a theory which has virtually nothing going for it and I was continually amazed as to how some Journalists even stated without any proof that the Captain was committing suicide and continued to fly the aircraft for hours till it ran out of fuel. There is no logic in that assertion.
Early last year a new and very disturbing fact came to light that may well be responsible for the fate of MH370. In the Malaysia Airlines Report it stated that there was 221Kg of Lithium Batteries in the cargo hold. Lithium Batteries are classified as Dangerous Goods and are well known in the Aviation Industry as being so highly dangerous that many airlines refuse to carry them as they have been responsible for onboard fires in aircraft and have destroyed aircraft as big as Jumbo’s in the air and on the ground.
The two most recent aircraft to be destroyed by Lithium Batteries were an Asiana Boeing 747 Jumbo over the Straits of Korea in July 2011 and a UPS Boeing 747 that crashed and burnt while desperately trying to return to land at Dubai in September 2010 while carrying 81,000 Lithium batteries on board that had exploded and burnt.
In July 2013 an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 787 parked at Heathrow Airport had a fire on board caused by a Lithium battery powered ELT located in the tail of the aircraft. At the time of the Heathrow fire, there were an estimated 3,650 identical RESCU 406AFN ELT batteries in service, fitted to numerous aircraft types
While UN and Aviation Dangerous Goods regulations had previously stipulated that only a very small amount of Lithium Batteries can be carried as cargo on board a passenger aircraft there was a loophole which allowed for a much larger quantity to be carried and 221 Kg on MH370 is a very large amount. It was also reported that when the batteries were loaded onto MH370 it was observed that they were not packed correctly.
MH370 disappeared on 8th March 2014. Interestingly and not before time effective from 1st April 2016 the International Civil Aviation Authority and the UN finally banned the carriage of lithium batteries as cargo on passenger aircraft.
I believe the distinct possibility is that MH370 may have suffered a Lithium battery fire and explosion in the forward cargo hold damaging the adjacent avionics and communications compartment which would explain the loss or the Transponder and ACARS system. The onboard fire or explosion then penetrated the aircrafts skin causing a rapid decompression of the aircrafts hull.
It is probable that the pilots while being distracted by the various alarms going off failed to immediately don their oxygen masks and commence an emergency descent to 10,000 feet following the sudden loss of pressure as is standard procedure. The high probability is that they were therefore rendered unconscious within 30 seconds and subsequently died as the aircraft continued to fly on as has happened in previous known accidents caused by pilots suffering hypoxia.
In aviation circles such a flight is known as a ‘Ghost Flight’ two of which have occurred in Australia, one involving a King Air and the other an F18 and co-incidentally I knew the pilots of both those flights.
I have flown the Boeing 777 simulator and it is just like every other modern aircraft. It is fully computerized and as long as it has fuel in the tanks it will fly by itself on autopilot as all commercial aircraft do on every flight
Any aircraft Accident Investigator will tell you that most aircraft accidents can be the result of a series of factors occurring either at the same time or in succession.
If MH370 is now found and the Flight Data Recorder is recovered intact in a serviceable condition it should hopefully finally reveal to investigators the actual circumstances that caused the accident.