Biggest mysteries in Aviation history
By Dr Upul Wijayawardhana
Humans, for generations, would have been envious of birds as the freedom of the skies was entirely theirs. Born with abilities of terrestrial pursuits, humans soon took to water and mastered the art of transport in water too but attempts at flying like birds were in vain, most ending in disaster! However, myths abound. Daedalus, the engineer and his son, Icarus, are supposed to have flown with wings of wax and feather, according to Greek legend.
Though Daedalus flew successfully from Crete to Naples, overambitious Icarus, who flew too high got close to the Sun and fell to his death in the ocean due to wax wings melting. Persian King Kaj Kaoos is supposed to have flown around his kingdom with eagles attached to his throne and Alexander the Great is supposed to have done the same in a basket powered by four Griffins. If Valmiki’s Ramayana is to be believed, as many Indians do, our King Ravana ought to be considered the pioneer aviator!
Perhaps, the discovery of kites by the Chinese around 400BCE was the first inspiration for contraptions for flying as it was the forerunner for gliders and balloons. Leonardo da Vinci was the first to make a scientific study on flights in 1480’s and had left over 400 drawings to illustrate his theories of flight. The brothers, Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier were the inventors of the hot air balloon and their first manned flight was in November 1783.
English engineer, Sir George Cayley is sometimes referred to as “the father of aviation” as he designed the first successful human glider and discovered the four aerodynamic forces of flight, basic for designing aeroplanes. Sir George Cayley’s work in the early 19th Century was followed by the German engineer Otto Lilienthal’s work which influenced the Wright brothers, Wilbur and Orville making aviation history on 17th December 1903 when they flew their heavier-than-air “Wright Flyer” from Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, which travelled 120 feet in 12 seconds. That was the beginning of the revolution that produced supersonic aircraft like the Concord, giants like Boeing 747 and Airbus 380 and aircraft that can fly huge distances non-stop; from London to Perth and Singapore to New York. Quantas is planning to introduce a flight from Sydney to London next year, which covers 10,573 miles in 20 hours!
Until the mysterious disappearance of Malaysian airline’s flight MH370 ten years ago, the biggest mystery of all time in aviation history was that of pioneer aviatrix Amelia Erhart. She held many records, the most important being the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic which she did in 1932. She took off from Newfoundland intending to fly to Paris but was forced to land in a pasture close to Derry in Northern Ireland due to bad weather and technical problems. Five years later she attempted to be the first female to circumnavigate the globe but disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean, near Howland Island, with her navigator Fred Noonan on 2nd July 1937, just three weeks prior to her fortieth birthday.
Although the most plausible explanation for her disappearance is exhausting fuel and crashing on to the ocean in the attempt to find Howland Island, which failed due to bad weather and primitive navigational tools available at the time, many theories have been postulated including that she and her navigator were captured by the Japanese. Perhaps, the number of books written on the subject equals that of her records! However, the mystery may be solved, at last, as Deep Sea Vision, an ocean exploration company, has reported locating a wreck in the Pacific, close to Howland Island, which may be the Lockheed 10-E Electra of Amelia Erhart. If it is confirmed, conspiracy theories would be proved wrong, more than anything else.
British aviatrix, Amy Johnson, the first woman to fly solo from London to Australia in 1930, held many records and was a celebrity of the time, just like her counterpart across the pond Amelia Erhart. During the Second World War, she volunteered to serve in the Air Transport Auxiliary which transported aircraft from factories to RAF bases. On 5th January 1941, while flying an Airspeed Oxford from Prestwick in Scotland to an RAF base in Oxford, she had gone off-course due to adverse weather conditions.
As the aircraft had run out of fuel and was crashing into the Thames Estuary near Herne Bay in Kent, she had bailed out of the aircraft. In spite of an extensive search, she could not be rescued and her body too was never found. There are speculations that she was a victim of ‘friendly-fire’ and also that her body may have been sucked up by the engine of the ship that went to rescue her. What tragic ends to two pioneering women on either side of the Atlantic!
The biggest mystery of all time is the disappearance of Malaysian airlines flight MH370 which is very much fresh in our memories although it happened ten years ago. In the early hours of Saturday 8th March 2014, 00.41 Malaysian time, the Boeing 777 aircraft with 227 passengers and 12 crew took off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport for the six-hour flight to Beijing.
At 01.19 the last message from the cockpit was “Good night, Malaysian three seven zero” which was in response to Malaysian air traffic control message that as the flight was leaving Malaysian airspace, it should contact Vietnamese air traffic control. Soon after this all communication was lost and the response from Malaysian airlines officials left much to be desired. The next morning a search began in the South China sea with no sightings.
It was later revealed that Malaysian military radar showed that the plane had almost made a U-turn raising the possibility that the pilots may have wanted to return to KL airport due to technical problems. However, after flying towards KL it turned left, heading West. Perhaps, this anomaly should have triggered a response from the Malaysian Airforce, as an aircraft deviating from the flightpath could pose a security threat. With this data, the search shifted to the West of Malaysia.
A week later, Inmarsat, the British Satellite communications company released data based on the pings from the Rolls-Royce engines of the aircraft, which suggested that MH370 had flown for 6 hours and the most likely site of the crash is in the Indian ocean, southwest of Australia. In spite of an extensive search covering three million square miles at tremendous cost the wreckage is still to be found.
As predicted by Prof Charitha Pattiaratchi, Professor of Coastal Oceanography of University of Western Australia, based on the studies of ocean currents and the presumed crash site, the first piece of debris of the aircraft was found in the French Reunion Island in July 2015. Subsequently, small pieces of the B777 have been found along the coasts of Mozambique, Madagascar and Tanzania confirming that MH370 crashed off the west coast of Australia. This brings into doubt the sighting by fisherman in southern Maldives of a large aircraft flying low which led to the conspiracy theory that it was hijacked to be taken to Diego Garcia but was downed by US Airforce. If this was the case, debris would have been found very much earlier along the western coastline of the Indian Ocean.
A new claim had been made, based on analysis of WSPR data, distortions of weak-signal radio communications between amateur radio operators, that the crash site is just south of the searched area and Liverpool University is addressing this issue. It seems very likely that the Malaysian government would authorise another search by Ocean Infinity, using a fleet of autonomous underwater vehicles with greater resolution than those used in the previous search.
Prof Pattiaratchi commented in a TV documentary that MH370 would ultimately be found, adding that it took 100 years to locate the wreck of the Titanic in spite of knowing exactly where it sank! “MH370 disappearance 10 years on: can we still find it?” a very informative article by Prof Pattiaratchi appears in ‘The Conversation’ website: (https://theconversation.com/mh370-disappearance-10-years-on-can-we-still-find-it-224954)
Worryingly, most experts seem to suggest that this was a wilful act by either the pilot or the co-pilot though no clear motive seems to emerge as to why either of them would do so. If it was murder-suicide, would a pilot fly an aircraft for hours, till the fuel supply is exhausted? Surely, even the angriest person would calm down after a time. Further, if it was done to make a point an attempt would be made to demonstrate this. I find it difficult to comprehend that a pilot would do this simply because he can do so, which is the only other explanation left!
Ten million passengers take to air each day and air travel has become the safest mode of transport but some recent incidents involving Boeing have made dents in public confidence as some are accusing Boeing of putting profits before safety. Hope it is not true!
