Series Summary - Netflix"s MH370: The Plane That Disappeared

The mini-series has divided opinions among the aviation community.


Photo: Laurent ERRERA via Wikimedia Commons

To coincide with the 9th anniversary of the disappearance of MH370, Netflix released a hugely popular three-part documentary series. It is, in fact, so popular that it is the most-watched TV program on the streaming site this month. The series has faced some strong criticism from the aviation industry for giving airtime to unlikely theories. If you haven't seen the show yet, and are unsure if you want to, Simple Flying has summarized what to expect from the three-part documentary.

This article contains spoilers from the series MH370: The Plane That Disappeared.

Three distinct episodes

The mini-series has three episodes, each exploring a different possible answer to the mystery of what happened to the plane whose final location has never been definitively found. While some of the theories are far-fetched, the series does a good job of looking at both sides of each, investigating the facts that support and undermine each. Ultimately though, the series is not for all, with some questioning why the second two theories were given so much air time in online forums.

Episode 1: The Pilot

The first episode of the series is slightly different from the other two. As well as looking at one possible theory, it also has to set the story's background for anybody who may not be familiar with the ins and outs of MH370.

The episode opens with Jeff Wise, who, in his own words, has been "following the case obsessively" over the past nine years. Wise is a key part of the first two episodes, explaining the first two theories. Other key components of the episodes are the family members of the victims and even Fuad Sharuji, who was the Malaysia Airlines Crisis Director for both MH370 and MH17, which occurred four months later.

As the first episode continues, it shows how the MH370 disappearance unfolded on a day-by-day basis, looking at the initial search in the South China Sea, the revelation that the aircraft had flown back over Malaysia, and the Inmarsat findings that suggest it ended in the Indian Ocean. The one small criticism that we have of this episode is that while the taxi and take-off of MH370 are being presented, a Boeing 737 is shown taxiing before footage of an Airbus A330 taking off. MH370 was operated by a Boeing 777.

After explaining the background of the MH370 case, Episode 1 then presents the possibility that the pilot of MH370, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, intentionally flew the aircraft into the Indian Ocean and the steps that he would've had to undertake to achieve this. This theory is generally accepted as the most likely, and the final report from the Malaysian government states that the flight ended in the Indian Ocean. The show points out that the final report doesn't implicate Zaharie in the third episode.

Episode 2: The Hijack

The second episode of the series starts with the shooting down of MH17 four months after the disappearance of MH370. Suggesting that the two events may be linked, Wise then explains a theory that three "ethnically Russian men" could have worked together to covertly gain access to the Boeing 777's electrical bay, accessible from the first class cabin.

He then theorizes that having electronically hijacked the plane, it was flown north to Kazakhstan. A reason given for the theory was that Russia wanted the world's media to focus on a missing aircraft to detract from its annexation of Crimea.

Several points suggest that this could not be the case. Firstly, debris from MH370 has washed up on the east coast of Africa. In the third episode, Wise suggests that this could have been planted, with another theory also given for its origin. There is also the problem of the Inmarsat data proving that MH370 flew down to the Indian Ocean. Wise suggests that this could've been spoofed by the hijackers. On this point, Mark Dickinson, then Inmarsat's VP of Satellite Operations, comments,

"The idea that someone predicts that we would analyze this data in this way when we'd never done it in the past before doesn't seem particularly credible at all."

Episode 3: The Intercept

In the third episode of MH370: The Plane That Disappeared, Wise gives way to a French Author & Investigative Journalist, Florence De Changy, who explains a theory that the aircraft was potentially taken down by the US military due to a suspicious cargo onboard the plane.

De Changy believes that the aircraft did come down in the South China Sea as initially thought. She points out that only one piece of wreckage found on the east coast of Africa has been confirmed to come from MH370, and that is based on only one of 12 serial numbers on the piece matching the plane (Note that the official report on the accident shows that three items found have been confirmed to come from MH370). Crucially, she points out that this piece was missing its identification plate. Both she and Wise suggest that most of the pieces, found by an individual named Blaine Gibson, cannot be trusted.

One of the cargo types listed in the report is "Lithium Ion batteries-walkie-talkie accessories & chargers". The report goes on to reveal that this cargo was visually and externally inspected by MASkargo and customs personnel before leaving its origin but was not screened at the airport before being loaded. De Changy theorizes that this cargo could've contained sensitive electronics that the US would not like China to get its hands on.

Two US Boeing AWACS aircraft (example shown in the photo below) then supposedly intercepted MH370, jamming its signals as it disappeared. Captain Zaharie ignores an order to land immediately. As the aircraft approaches Chinese airspace, it is shot out of the skies above the South China Sea. What follows is then a coverup orchestrated by multiple governments involved in the investigation. Concluding her theory, De Changy remarks,

"I'm the first one to say that it sounds incredibly far-fetched, and that it has still some loose ends. But I believe I'm certainly much closer to the truth than the official narrative. The most important part of my job has been to demonstrate that the official narrative was a fabrication."

A summary

While parts of the documentary seem a little far-fetched at times, we believe that the show does a good job of looking at both sides of each theory in a way that some other aviation-themed Netflix documentaries haven't. We would recommend it not only to anybody with an interest in aviation but also to those with a general interest in such documentaries, though you may want to take it with a pinch of salt.

As far as the official report on the disappearance of MH370? It states,

"In conclusion, the Team is unable to determine the real cause for the disappearance of MH370."