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.

Wasnt there incriminating evidence on the FO’s home flight sim? Or am I confusing that with the eurowings?

PI 965 and 968 must apply. Sounds undeclared

Top cap,
How does the evidence that it probably ended up in the southern Indian Ocean on the way 5o China fit in with your theory?

Had it made a 180 degree turn then continued straight on that heading until it ran out of fuel then your theory would have more merit

But given it made at least 2 significant course changes after the initial turn then that tends to point to a deliberate action.

Not to mention 221kg of Lithium Batteries going up in such a manner as to completely disable all their electronics so suddenly and prevent them from making contact again or any sort of signal for distress, how did it continue to fly for so many hours after this? Even the UPS 747 flew only for 30minutes before it crashed. No ELT activation, no change of Transponder Code, No Mayday or Pan Pan Call, no erratic flight path, no terrified last messages or calls from any of the passengers or crew on board? Surely something that catastrophic would have caused it to crash long before and shown up in the materials found washed ashore?

Honestly, we're missing something in all of this because none of the explanations make sense, if it was a fire then how did it so suddenly destroy all means of tracking or comms but leave it able to fly? If it was hijacked then why did no one take responsibility for it and for what reason would they continue to fly it for so long?

Every theory so far is possible but at the same time they're also not and we really won't know until the Black boxes and hopefully the rest of the Aircraft are retrieved and can give us some definitive answers.

All we know for now is that at some point it turned around, all communications ceased, it started making course changes which seem deliberate then ran out of fuel and hit the water hard.

No NO NO.

The aircraft turned left off route and flew along the FIR boundary between Malaysia and Thailand. It then flew North of Sumatra and turned roughly south.

These are known facts, not guesswork.

How does this happen with unconscious crew?

How does an onboard fire disable all of the comms and depressurise the aeroplane so suddenly that neither pilot was able to go onto oxygen and continue to fly ther aeroplane which patently remained "airworthy" for many hours afterwards?

Sorry, but that's just not credible. Going onto oxygen as a 1st response is a practiced and drilled routine.

PDR

these theories have all been done to death on here since the accident - please lets not start all over again..................................

quoted from OP
''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.''


that sort of fire would have brought the 777 down PDQ and if your theory is based on the above how do you know where and what hold the batteries were loaded in?
do you have that loading info?

would a hypoxic crew have made several controlled turns and also turned off the transponder?

in response to another post it was the Capt's home PC flight sim program that had this routing on it
not the FO

Some light reading....

http://avherald.com/h?article=40a29b54

http://avherald.com/h?article=44078aa7

Very much with the OP on this.

I have no idea how these two incidents relate to MH370. Cockpit/lithium ion fires in the cargo hold don’t result in the flight path actually flown.

Seems like a lot of Flight sim experts here.

Of course you don’t see it........
Tell me Mr. expert, what’s the first thing one reaches for when a depress occurs and how effective would it be if it was the cause of your depress in the first place?
If you were a fit, young FO fighting hypoxia, would you start twiddling MCP controls before passing out?

Maybe you are the flight sim expert that hasn’t considered such.