WEBVTT - S05 Episode 11: Destination Unknown (Pt.2 of 2) 0:00:10.920 --> 0:00:16.280 You're listening to Unexplained, Season five, Episode eleven, Destination Unknown, 0:00:16.880 --> 0:00:27.000 Part two. Kate gazed up at the stars as the 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:31.160 boat gently glided across the ocean. The dead, calm waters 0:00:31.200 --> 0:00:34.360 were a marked contrast from the treacherous weather of the 0:00:34.440 --> 0:00:38.640 last few days, and as Kate's husband Mark slept below deck, 0:00:39.200 --> 0:00:43.400 she was grateful for this quiet moment of solitude. For 0:00:43.479 --> 0:00:46.760 the past few weeks, Kate had been learning the constellations 0:00:46.760 --> 0:00:49.839 of the night sky and was enjoying testing herself on 0:00:49.840 --> 0:00:52.800 one of the clearest nights in days when she spotted 0:00:52.840 --> 0:00:57.520 something unexpected, an orange speck just above the horizon to 0:00:57.600 --> 0:01:01.360 the north. Perhaps it was Mars, she thought, as she 0:01:01.400 --> 0:01:03.800 looked about for any other sign of the red planet, 0:01:04.520 --> 0:01:07.920 then turned back to find, much to her confusion, that 0:01:08.000 --> 0:01:12.400 the orange speck was now moving directly toward her. It 0:01:12.440 --> 0:01:15.720 was only then she realized with some alarm, it was 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:20.280 orange because it was on fire. The couple were in 0:01:20.319 --> 0:01:22.759 the midst of a journey across the Indian Ocean at 0:01:22.760 --> 0:01:25.959 the time, making their way from Cochin in India to 0:01:26.040 --> 0:01:30.000 Fouquet in Thailand. It had just gone ten minutes past 0:01:30.040 --> 0:01:35.119 seven pm Coordinated Universal Time or UTC with their boat 0:01:35.319 --> 0:01:38.760 heading northeast between the tip of North Sumatra and Great 0:01:38.880 --> 0:01:43.480 Nicobar Island when Kate saw the unusual object. As she 0:01:43.520 --> 0:01:46.119 would later claim on her travel blog a few months 0:01:46.160 --> 0:01:49.440 after the apparent event, Kate first assumed the object to 0:01:49.440 --> 0:01:52.880 be a meteor or perhaps some kind of missile, before 0:01:52.960 --> 0:01:55.800 realizing with horror as it drew nearer that it was 0:01:55.840 --> 0:01:58.840 in fact a plane tearing through the sky at what 0:01:59.000 --> 0:02:02.120 must have been barely four thousand feet, with a trail 0:02:02.160 --> 0:02:06.480 of thick black smoke billowing out from behind it. It 0:02:06.560 --> 0:02:09.520 wasn't until the couple arrived in Fouquet two days later 0:02:09.800 --> 0:02:12.600 that they heard the news of the missing plane, and 0:02:12.680 --> 0:02:14.600 it was only when Kate looked back at the log 0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:19.079 book soon after that she made the startling discovery. Ten 0:02:19.080 --> 0:02:22.960 minutes past UTC on March seventh, the time Kate claimed 0:02:23.000 --> 0:02:25.800 to have seen a burning plane in the sky, also 0:02:26.040 --> 0:02:30.040 happens to be ten minutes past two am on March eighth, 0:02:30.200 --> 0:02:35.480 Malaysian time, or rather precisely the time that Malaysia Airways 0:02:35.600 --> 0:02:38.639 flight MH three seventy was picked up on a military 0:02:38.720 --> 0:02:42.799 radar close to Great Nicobar Island, shortly before it vanished. 0:02:43.880 --> 0:02:47.680 If Kate's sighting is to be believed her and Mark's 0:02:47.680 --> 0:02:51.520 boat would have been almost directly underneath it at the time. 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:02.640 Five days after Flight H three seventy disappeared, the Wall 0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:06.760 Street Journal published an article detailing the revised information about 0:03:06.800 --> 0:03:10.280 the plane's last known whereabouts and its unknown turn to 0:03:10.400 --> 0:03:15.040 either the north or south, adding further confusion to the situation. 0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:18.600 The Malaysian government first denied the claim, only to then 0:03:18.639 --> 0:03:22.880 confirm it two days later. As the loved ones of 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:27.080 those on board wrestled with this startling new information, search 0:03:27.120 --> 0:03:31.880 and rescue experts assessed the two possible options. Since it 0:03:31.960 --> 0:03:35.080 was considered highly unlikely that the plane had flown back 0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:38.760 over China and into Kazakhstan without being picked up on 0:03:38.800 --> 0:03:42.560 a number of national military radars, that left only one 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:47.400 possibility that, due to a strange and unlikely set of circumstances, 0:03:47.680 --> 0:03:51.880 Flight MH three seventy had flown inexplicably right into the 0:03:51.960 --> 0:03:57.480 vastness of the wide open Indian Ocean. Assuming the plane 0:03:57.480 --> 0:04:00.560 had eventually come down in the water, the point of 0:04:00.600 --> 0:04:03.240 impact was judged to have been somewhere in the southern 0:04:03.280 --> 0:04:07.000 corridor of the Southern Indian Ocean, an area considered to 0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:11.920 be mostly within Australia's aeronautical and maritime Search and Rescue region. 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:15.840 It was therefore agreed that Australia, in coordination with the 0:04:15.920 --> 0:04:20.000 Chinese and Malaysian governments, would lead the search. They were 0:04:20.080 --> 0:04:22.919 joined by ships and aircraft from New Zealand and the 0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:26.600 US as they focused first on an area roughly six 0:04:26.760 --> 0:04:31.200 hundred thousand kilometers squared in size, beginning three thousand kilometers 0:04:31.400 --> 0:04:35.840 southwest of Perth. It was an area described by Australian 0:04:35.880 --> 0:04:39.160 Prime Minister at the time, Tony Abbot as being as 0:04:39.200 --> 0:04:44.039 close to nowhere as it's possible to be. In the meantime, 0:04:44.400 --> 0:04:48.960 as relatives and loved ones demanded more information, Malaysia Airlines, 0:04:49.279 --> 0:04:52.599 and since it was the national airline by extension, the 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:55.920 Malaysian government, were left to make sense of just how 0:04:55.960 --> 0:04:58.360 an earth the plane had got to where it did. 0:05:00.240 --> 0:05:03.000 Together the fact that had clearly been flown manually for 0:05:03.040 --> 0:05:06.000 a significant part of the altered route and had not 0:05:06.080 --> 0:05:09.600 engaged in any May day communications, not to mention the 0:05:09.680 --> 0:05:12.240 lack of any credible evidence to suggest it was a 0:05:12.360 --> 0:05:17.520 terrorist attack, presented a very uncomfortable possibility that either the 0:05:17.560 --> 0:05:20.880 pilot or co pilot had deliberately brought the plane down 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:31.920 as part of a murder suicide event. Pilot fifty three 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:36.320 year old Sahari Ahmed Shah from Penang, first joined Malaysia 0:05:36.320 --> 0:05:39.920 Airlines as a cadet before eventually being promoted to captain 0:05:40.000 --> 0:05:42.720 of a Boeing seven thirty seven in nineteen ninety one, 0:05:43.279 --> 0:05:46.000 working his way up to captain of the Triple sevens 0:05:46.040 --> 0:05:50.000 in nineteen ninety eight. All in all, he had over 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:53.279 eighteen thousand hours of flying experience and was one of 0:05:53.320 --> 0:05:58.320 the most senior and trusted pilots at Malaysia Airlines. By contrast, 0:05:58.400 --> 0:06:01.920 his co pilot, twenty seven year old First Officer Farike 0:06:02.000 --> 0:06:06.200 Abdul Hamid, was a rookie by comparison, having clocked roughly 0:06:06.240 --> 0:06:09.920 two thousand, seven hundred hours of flight time. In fact, 0:06:10.240 --> 0:06:13.320 flight MH three seventy was only his sixth in the 0:06:13.360 --> 0:06:16.520 cockpit of a Triple seven and his first without the 0:06:16.520 --> 0:06:21.000 supervision of a training pilot watching over him. The day 0:06:21.040 --> 0:06:25.120 after the plane's disappearance, Malaysian police began an investigation into 0:06:25.160 --> 0:06:28.159 the men's private lives and their movements leading up to 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:30.520 the flight, in the hunt for any sign that they 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:34.599 might have orchestrated the disaster. Both were found to be 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:38.200 in stable relationships, with Captain Shah having been married for 0:06:38.279 --> 0:06:42.880 years and Farik Hamid reportedly engaged and looking forward to 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:47.880 getting married himself. According to their employer, neither had shown 0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:50.599 any signs of stress in the weeks prior to the flight, 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:55.159 nor had any history of drug dependency, anxiety, or apathy. 0:06:56.279 --> 0:06:59.520 CCTV footage was also analyzed from the day of the 0:06:59.560 --> 0:07:02.799 flight for any sign of emotional distress in the body 0:07:02.880 --> 0:07:06.520 language of the pair. This assessment was also extended to 0:07:06.600 --> 0:07:10.600 the ten cabin crew on board, but nothing untoward was discovered. 0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:15.640 Although it reveals nothing of an individual's precise state of might, 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:18.800 the fact that both men had prestigious jobs for the 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:22.840 nation's flagship airline, especially with Hammid only being at the 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:25.520 beginning of his career with much to look forward to, 0:07:26.120 --> 0:07:31.680 was only further reason not to suspect either of any wrongdoing. However, 0:07:32.040 --> 0:07:35.240 though Hammid was quickly ruled out as a legitimate possibility, 0:07:35.680 --> 0:07:39.920 when investigators delved a little deeper into Captain Shah's private life, 0:07:40.320 --> 0:07:50.600 they found not all was quite what it seemed. In truth, 0:07:51.000 --> 0:07:54.320 although Shah was married, he was now living alone after 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:56.800 his wife had moved out of their marital home and 0:07:56.960 --> 0:07:59.960 into a second home owned by the couple in Kuala Lump. 0:08:00.920 --> 0:08:03.640 All three of their grown up children had also moved 0:08:03.640 --> 0:08:07.679 out by this point. An analysis of his social media 0:08:07.760 --> 0:08:10.920 history also revealed a man a little at odds with 0:08:10.960 --> 0:08:15.720 his professional persona. At some point, Shah appeared to have 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:20.000 become fixated with two teenage sisters models based in Penang. 0:08:20.880 --> 0:08:23.640 In the twelve months leading up to the plane's disappearance, 0:08:24.000 --> 0:08:28.000 Shah left over ninety comments on their Facebook pages, all 0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:32.320 of which went ignored. Shah was also a vocal critic 0:08:32.400 --> 0:08:35.800 of the Malaysian government, describing Prime Minister of the time 0:08:36.160 --> 0:08:40.640 Nagie Razak on Facebook as a moron and writing later 0:08:40.920 --> 0:08:45.199 rather ominously, on May twenty third, twenty thirteen, there is 0:08:45.240 --> 0:08:47.880 a rebel in each and every one of us. Let 0:08:47.920 --> 0:08:51.920 it out. There were question marks two about the nature 0:08:51.960 --> 0:08:54.559 of a relationship with a thirty five year old woman 0:08:54.760 --> 0:08:57.400 and mother of three whom Shah had grown close to 0:08:57.679 --> 0:09:01.040 in the months leading up to his disappearance. The woman 0:09:01.120 --> 0:09:04.120 claimed later that the pair had met while volunteering during 0:09:04.120 --> 0:09:07.160 the Malaysian elections, and that they were not having an affair, 0:09:07.600 --> 0:09:10.600 but rather that Shah had seen potential in her and 0:09:10.720 --> 0:09:13.040 that he wanted to help build a better future for 0:09:13.120 --> 0:09:17.600 her and her children. Some have suggested, however, that perhaps 0:09:17.640 --> 0:09:21.120 her interpretation of the relationship and his actual hopes for 0:09:21.160 --> 0:09:25.400 it were some distance apart. It all seemed to paint 0:09:25.400 --> 0:09:28.280 a picture of a man who had perhaps grown frustrated 0:09:28.320 --> 0:09:32.680 with his lot, and who was ultimately very lonely and sad. 0:09:39.600 --> 0:09:42.319 As the search continued for any sign of debris from 0:09:42.320 --> 0:09:46.160 the plane, numerous large objects were spotted with satellite imaging, 0:09:46.559 --> 0:09:49.320 including one piece thought to be seventy nine feet long, 0:09:50.240 --> 0:09:52.800 but by the time boats and aircraft were dispatched to 0:09:52.840 --> 0:09:57.880 the area, the objects were gone. On March twenty fourth, 0:09:58.080 --> 0:10:02.400 Malaysia's Prime Minister Naji Brazac publicly announced what had long 0:10:02.480 --> 0:10:06.559 been suspected that flight MH three seventy had most likely 0:10:06.600 --> 0:10:10.120 crashed in the Southern Indian Ocean and there were no survivors. 0:10:11.840 --> 0:10:15.719 Then on April twelfth, Startling news Is revealed that a 0:10:15.840 --> 0:10:20.800 signal coming from copilot for Eke Abdulhamid's phone was picked 0:10:20.880 --> 0:10:25.480 up sometime around two am Malaysian time, just minutes before 0:10:25.480 --> 0:10:28.440 the plane vanished from radar screens for the second and 0:10:28.520 --> 0:10:32.640 final time. Experts theorized that a drop in the plane's 0:10:32.640 --> 0:10:35.840 altitude as it flew close to Penang Island may have 0:10:36.000 --> 0:10:40.160 enabled a mobile signal to reach it. However, since it 0:10:40.240 --> 0:10:43.280 wasn't clear if Hammid had attempted to call himself or 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:46.000 merely that his phone had somehow been switched back on 0:10:46.200 --> 0:10:49.400 at this time, there was little to garner from the information. 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:53.040 As the days turned to weeks, with nothing to show 0:10:53.080 --> 0:10:56.240 for it, the search of the ocean's surface was ended 0:10:56.280 --> 0:10:59.800 in late April. Any chance of recovering the plane's black 0:11:00.600 --> 0:11:04.120 was also swiftly dwindling, since in the event of a crash, 0:11:04.160 --> 0:11:06.880 they were only required to continue emitting a signal for 0:11:07.000 --> 0:11:10.720 up to thirty days. Afterwards, the main focus of the 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:15.160 search then turned to the ocean deep. However, with so 0:11:15.240 --> 0:11:18.080 little known about the area and any data they did 0:11:18.120 --> 0:11:22.200 have of such low resolution, scientists had to perform a 0:11:22.200 --> 0:11:26.959 bathymetric survey before they could even begin. The process involves 0:11:27.040 --> 0:11:30.200 the use of an echo sounder beacon being towed underwater 0:11:30.240 --> 0:11:34.040 by boat using sonar technology to pin down and receive 0:11:34.120 --> 0:11:38.199 back an image of the seabed. It is a painstaking process. 0:11:44.640 --> 0:11:47.800 With the first basic survey complete in May, the more 0:11:47.840 --> 0:11:52.600 precise underwater search for the plane was resumed. Then in July, 0:11:53.040 --> 0:11:57.960 a second extraordinary Malaysia Airways disaster occurred when another Bowing 0:11:58.000 --> 0:12:02.600 Triple seven flight M seventeen, carrying two hundred and ninety 0:12:02.600 --> 0:12:05.440 eight passengers and crew, was hit by a surface to 0:12:05.480 --> 0:12:10.080 air missile while flying above eastern Ukraine, killing all on board. 0:12:11.040 --> 0:12:13.400 The missile was found to have been launched from an 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:16.720 area of the country being occupied by pro Russian forces. 0:12:17.480 --> 0:12:21.680 The Russian government denied all knowledge of the attack. Aside 0:12:21.720 --> 0:12:24.480 from being an obvious tragedy for those on board and 0:12:24.600 --> 0:12:28.640 a further pr disaster for Malaysia Airways, The event was however, 0:12:28.720 --> 0:12:33.280 unlinked to flight MH three seventy, and so the search 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:37.679 continued week after week, month after month, but still no 0:12:37.760 --> 0:12:42.120 sign of the plane was discovered. On January twenty ninth, 0:12:42.240 --> 0:12:46.600 twenty fifteen. Having gathered no conclusive evidence, the Malaysian government 0:12:46.679 --> 0:12:50.600 declared the disappearance simply an accident with no survivors, and 0:12:50.679 --> 0:12:59.439 the search was paused due to bad weather this year 0:12:59.480 --> 0:13:01.800 and refocusing on what it means to take care of 0:13:01.840 --> 0:13:04.840 myself and it couldn't be easier than with Daily Harvest. 0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:08.439 Daily Harvest delivers delicious food or built on organic fruits 0:13:08.440 --> 0:13:11.439 and vegetables right to your door. It takes literally minutes 0:13:11.480 --> 0:13:13.600 to prepare, and I never have to think twice if 0:13:13.600 --> 0:13:16.079 the food I'm eating is good for me. Daily Harvest 0:13:16.080 --> 0:13:19.280 works directly with organic farms to freeze their ingredients right 0:13:19.320 --> 0:13:22.240 on the farm at peak ripeness to lock in nutrients 0:13:22.240 --> 0:13:27.160 and taste. 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Go to Daily Harvest 0:13:57.920 --> 0:14:01.400 dot com and enter promo code explained to get twenty 0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:04.840 five dollars off your first box. That's promo code unexplained 0:14:04.920 --> 0:14:07.720 for twenty five dollars off your first box at Daily 0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:16.679 Harvest dot com. That's Daily Harvest dot com. In early 0:14:16.720 --> 0:14:20.600 twenty fifteen, Blaine Gibson, who'd sold his parents' home back 0:14:20.640 --> 0:14:24.360 in Carmel, California some time ago, was living in law 0:14:24.760 --> 0:14:27.720 overseeing the construction of a restaurant on the Mekong River. 0:14:28.880 --> 0:14:31.720 Throughout it all, he'd continued to keep a close eye 0:14:31.760 --> 0:14:35.200 on any MH three seventy news, even joining a number 0:14:35.200 --> 0:14:39.160 of Facebook groups to discuss the subject with others. In 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:43.240 March twenty fifteen, outside a large shopping mall in Kuala Lumpa, 0:14:43.360 --> 0:14:46.080 a ceremony was held to commemorate the victims of the 0:14:46.120 --> 0:14:50.960 tragic event, but also to agitate for further investigations. At 0:14:50.960 --> 0:14:53.720 the back of the stage, a large poster carried the 0:14:53.760 --> 0:14:57.120 silhouetted image of a Boeing Triple seven, accompanied by the 0:14:57.160 --> 0:15:06.400 words where, Who, Why, How, alongside impossible, unprecedented, and vanished. 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:10.600 A crowd of hundreds had gathered to watch, and standing 0:15:10.600 --> 0:15:14.680 at the back behind them all was Blaine Gibson. He, 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:18.840 like most of the attendees, had openly wept when Grace 0:15:18.920 --> 0:15:22.720 Subethiri Nathan had taken to the stage to describe what 0:15:22.800 --> 0:15:25.480 she loved most about her mother, who had been lost 0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:28.640 with all the others on the plane. Blaine had been 0:15:28.680 --> 0:15:32.080 so moved by Grace's words that when he saw her afterwards, 0:15:32.080 --> 0:15:34.960 he felt compelled to offer her a hug, to which 0:15:34.960 --> 0:15:38.720 she gladly accepted. The pair would go on to become 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:41.760 good friends. But what struck him most as he watched 0:15:41.760 --> 0:15:45.200 her speech, unable to ignore the large poster behind her, 0:15:45.640 --> 0:15:48.360 was that single word that seemed to stick out more 0:15:48.400 --> 0:15:54.080 prominently than any other vanished. What the missing passengers loved 0:15:54.080 --> 0:15:57.960 ones needed more than anything, he thought, was something tangible. 0:15:59.360 --> 0:16:03.800 Without this, they would remain forever in limbo, imprisoned by 0:16:03.800 --> 0:16:07.480 an impossible hope that there might yet be survivors, but 0:16:07.680 --> 0:16:11.040 equally unable to move forward and begin to come to 0:16:11.200 --> 0:16:15.280 terms with the more tragic and likely scenario. And so 0:16:15.360 --> 0:16:18.200 he got to thinking, why hadn't anything of the plain 0:16:18.400 --> 0:16:21.760 been found yet? If it had indeed crashed into the 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:26.000 Indian Ocean and disintegrated on impact, as most suspected, could 0:16:26.040 --> 0:16:29.480 it be? He thought that the experts were essentially looking 0:16:29.600 --> 0:16:39.720 in the wrong place, four thousand kilometers to the west 0:16:39.760 --> 0:16:43.400 of the underwater search area. On Wednesday, July twenty ninth, 0:16:43.600 --> 0:16:47.840 twenty fifteen, a beach clean up crew were busily scouring 0:16:47.840 --> 0:16:51.120 the stony beach along the coastline of Saint Andre, a 0:16:51.240 --> 0:16:55.120 town in the northeast of the French Overseas region of Runion. 0:16:55.960 --> 0:16:59.040 The crew, led by forty six year old Johnnie Begg, 0:16:59.520 --> 0:17:02.720 had been up since seven am, gathering all the usual 0:17:02.760 --> 0:17:05.560 bits of detritus that gets swept in from the ocean, 0:17:06.240 --> 0:17:10.840 plastic bottles, broken nylon, fishing nets, and various other pieces 0:17:10.840 --> 0:17:14.199 of mostly plastic. With the heat of the day beginning 0:17:14.200 --> 0:17:17.160 to rise, the group took a short break around nine, 0:17:17.640 --> 0:17:20.520 giving Johnnie just enough time to head off in search 0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:22.760 of a stone that he could use as a pestle 0:17:22.920 --> 0:17:27.280 for grinding spices. After a few moments scanning the pebbles, 0:17:27.600 --> 0:17:31.760 he noticed something unusual rocking by the waterline as shallow 0:17:31.760 --> 0:17:36.240 waves lapped softly against it. The object, roughly one and 0:17:36.280 --> 0:17:39.639 a half meters squared in size, was gray in color 0:17:39.920 --> 0:17:42.800 and appeared to be made of a combination of aluminium 0:17:42.960 --> 0:17:46.760 and some other fibrous material. It looked a lot like 0:17:46.960 --> 0:17:51.000 part of an airplane wing. Johnny called for his colleagues 0:17:51.000 --> 0:17:53.639 to join him, and together they hauled the item from 0:17:53.640 --> 0:17:57.720 the beach. The piece, along with the tattered remains of 0:17:57.720 --> 0:18:01.560 a fabric suitcase also found by Janni, was eventually sent 0:18:01.640 --> 0:18:04.960 to to Lose in France the following day to be analyzed, 0:18:05.920 --> 0:18:10.440 and then on August fifth, twenty fifteen, the news was announced. 0:18:11.160 --> 0:18:14.560 The object was identified as a flaperon, a section of 0:18:14.600 --> 0:18:18.560 airplane wing used to control speed and lift, and it 0:18:18.600 --> 0:18:29.960 had come from flight H three seventy. The flaperon was 0:18:30.000 --> 0:18:32.880 the first physical evidence that the search crews had been 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:35.040 right to suspect the plane had ended up in the 0:18:35.080 --> 0:18:39.000 Indian Ocean, as Blaine had begun to suspect. What they 0:18:39.040 --> 0:18:41.840 seemed not to have paid much attention to was how 0:18:41.880 --> 0:18:44.639 if the plane had broken up into pieces, much of 0:18:44.640 --> 0:18:47.080 the debris would have long been carried away from the 0:18:47.119 --> 0:18:51.680 search area by ocean currents. By the time Jeannie Begg 0:18:51.720 --> 0:18:54.760 had found the first piece, Blaine had already traveled to 0:18:54.800 --> 0:18:58.600 the coasts of Mayan, mar the Maldives, and Mauritius in 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:01.480 his own effort to find something, and though he'd come 0:19:01.560 --> 0:19:05.680 up empty handed so far, Beg's discovery confirmed he was 0:19:05.760 --> 0:19:10.400 on the right track for friends and family. However, despite 0:19:10.400 --> 0:19:14.040 it being ultimately a welcome turn of events, the flapron's 0:19:14.080 --> 0:19:18.840 discovery was a hammer blow, concrete proof that whatever had 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:22.200 happened to the plain, their loved ones had not survived. 0:19:23.960 --> 0:19:27.200 After flying to Reunion to speak directly with Janni Beg, 0:19:27.680 --> 0:19:31.320 Blaine then traveled to Australia to consult with two oceanographers 0:19:31.640 --> 0:19:34.000 to determine where would be the most likely place for 0:19:34.040 --> 0:19:37.919 any debris to turn up. They concluded the coasts of 0:19:37.960 --> 0:19:42.919 Madagascar and Mozambique, and so it was that in February 0:19:42.960 --> 0:19:46.560 twenty sixteen, Blaine found himself sat in the bow of 0:19:46.560 --> 0:19:49.760 a small fishing boat just off the coast of Villanculus 0:19:49.760 --> 0:19:53.080 in Mozambique, shielding his eyes from the spray as he 0:19:53.160 --> 0:19:56.959 and his guide Suleiman headed out toward a nearby sandbank. 0:19:58.440 --> 0:20:02.360 Blaine squinted towards the under the brim of his fedora, 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:05.119 clasping down firmly on the top of it to stop 0:20:05.160 --> 0:20:08.960 it blowing away as they shot over the water. Arriving 0:20:09.000 --> 0:20:12.800 soon after, Sulliman secured the vessel and invited Blaine to 0:20:12.880 --> 0:20:16.840 jump out to begin their search. They hadn't been looking 0:20:16.880 --> 0:20:20.680 long when Sulliman shouted over to Blaine, holding a weathered 0:20:20.880 --> 0:20:25.080 two feet wide, grayish looking object above his head. It 0:20:25.119 --> 0:20:27.920 was only when Blaine got closer he could clearly see 0:20:27.960 --> 0:20:38.119 the words no Step stenciled onto it. Blaine delivered the 0:20:38.160 --> 0:20:42.199 now infamous no Step piece of debris, later determined to 0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:45.800 be a horizontal stabilizer panel to the Australian console in 0:20:45.920 --> 0:20:51.639 Mozambique after being flown to Australia. Further analysis suggested it 0:20:51.760 --> 0:20:56.080 was in all likelihood a part of MH three seventy. 0:20:56.119 --> 0:20:59.679 When news of Gibson's efforts to aid the search went public, 0:21:00.000 --> 0:21:04.320 and after he was widely hailed as a hero, Having 0:21:04.320 --> 0:21:08.320 now unequivocally found himself tied up with the story, Blaine 0:21:08.359 --> 0:21:11.280 was soon introduced to an entirely different aspect of the 0:21:11.320 --> 0:21:15.439 planet's interest in what had happened to the plane. It 0:21:15.600 --> 0:21:18.600 was something he'd noticed seeds of in those first Facebook 0:21:18.640 --> 0:21:22.119 groups he'd joined soon after the plane disappeared, but was 0:21:22.200 --> 0:21:26.640 by now fostering entire mythologies of its own. At first, 0:21:26.960 --> 0:21:30.520 he was merely chastised by people online for exploiting the 0:21:30.560 --> 0:21:34.480 misery of the family's link to the disaster. Others derided 0:21:34.560 --> 0:21:38.960 him for his seemingly egotistical efforts to needlessly involve himself 0:21:39.000 --> 0:21:42.720 in the search, but most, in what seems to have 0:21:42.720 --> 0:21:46.600 become a feature of modern life, simply didn't believe him. 0:21:47.640 --> 0:21:50.600 Some accused him of being a stooge, believing he was 0:21:50.640 --> 0:21:53.760 a plant for the Russian government, others that he was 0:21:53.800 --> 0:21:58.040 in fact working for the American government. Either way, all 0:21:58.119 --> 0:22:00.640 were convinced he was part of an elaborate a global 0:22:00.720 --> 0:22:04.560 cover up to hide what had really taken place, and 0:22:04.720 --> 0:22:08.080 soon all manner of theories were being posited, and not 0:22:08.200 --> 0:22:12.439 always from the more extreme ends of online culture. The 0:22:12.560 --> 0:22:15.639 plane had been taken by a Russian special ops team, 0:22:15.880 --> 0:22:20.400 suggested one writer in a New York Magazine article. Others 0:22:20.440 --> 0:22:23.359 believed the US military shot it down after it was 0:22:23.400 --> 0:22:26.840 spotted heading toward a US military base in the Indian Ocean. 0:22:28.000 --> 0:22:31.439 Rupert Murdock even offered his theory that it had indeed 0:22:31.480 --> 0:22:34.480 been hijacked as a part of a jihadist plot to 0:22:34.560 --> 0:22:38.880 cause trouble for the Chinese government. Others suggested it had 0:22:38.880 --> 0:22:42.680 been captured by aliens, or that it had simply vanished 0:22:42.720 --> 0:22:47.879 into a wormhole and been transported to another time. And yet, 0:22:48.240 --> 0:22:51.960 despite Blaine finding three more pieces on the northeastern shore 0:22:52.000 --> 0:22:56.160 of Madagascar in June twenty sixteen, nothing of the pieces 0:22:56.160 --> 0:23:00.000 revealed anything to comprehensively discredit any one of the theory 0:23:00.440 --> 0:23:06.040 about what had happened. Then, in July twenty sixteen came 0:23:06.080 --> 0:23:17.320 an incredible revelation. The news was confirmed by Australian officials 0:23:17.600 --> 0:23:21.440 who until then had for sensitive diplomatic reasons, agreed to 0:23:21.520 --> 0:23:24.960 keep it quiet on behalf of the Malaysian government. It 0:23:25.080 --> 0:23:28.760 concerned the discovery made by Malaysian police a few days 0:23:28.800 --> 0:23:32.199 after the plane disappeared of an elaborate computer setup for 0:23:32.200 --> 0:23:36.800 the Microsoft Flight Simulator program. The system had been installed 0:23:36.840 --> 0:23:41.159 in Captain Zahari Shah's home, complete with multiple screens and 0:23:41.280 --> 0:23:45.359 manual controls, all designed to precisely mimic the cockpit of 0:23:45.359 --> 0:23:49.480 a Boeing seven seven seven. There was nothing unusual about 0:23:49.520 --> 0:23:52.280 it as such, since it is something that many pilots 0:23:52.320 --> 0:23:55.479 do for themselves to keep sharp and busy between flights. 0:23:56.760 --> 0:23:59.760 But what was intriguing was the single set of deleted 0:24:00.040 --> 0:24:03.000 miles that appeared to relate to a trip that Sharp 0:24:03.119 --> 0:24:07.520 programmed himself into the simulator back in February twenty fourteen, 0:24:07.960 --> 0:24:11.880 a month before the fateful flight. Unable to get more 0:24:11.920 --> 0:24:15.320 information themselves, the Malaysian police sent the files to the 0:24:15.400 --> 0:24:20.080 FBI for further analysis, and what they found astounded them. 0:24:21.440 --> 0:24:25.640 In total, they uncovered six deleted data points, each containing 0:24:25.640 --> 0:24:29.360 a record of the plane's speed, altitude, and direction at 0:24:29.359 --> 0:24:33.800 the time, along with a number of other parameters. Incredibly, 0:24:34.200 --> 0:24:38.199 the root Shah had plotted followed almost precisely the route 0:24:38.240 --> 0:24:41.920 taken by MH three seventy, as measured by the INMARSAT 0:24:42.040 --> 0:24:46.159 data readings. In short, in what seemed too much of 0:24:46.160 --> 0:24:50.200 a coincidence for some, only weeks before MH three seventy 0:24:50.280 --> 0:24:53.760 disappeared over what many have calculated to be the middle 0:24:53.760 --> 0:24:57.439 of the Indian Ocean, Zahari Shah had flown almost to 0:24:57.480 --> 0:25:02.240 the exact same course on his flights ulator. The flight 0:25:02.280 --> 0:25:06.639 paths were not precisely identical, but the similarity was undoubtedly jarring, 0:25:07.320 --> 0:25:10.120 and though some have taken this as conclusive proof that 0:25:10.200 --> 0:25:14.879 Captain Shah was responsible all along, others have cautioned against 0:25:14.960 --> 0:25:25.800 jumping to conclusions. The following June, as Blaine Gibson continued 0:25:25.840 --> 0:25:28.680 to find more and more pieces of the plane in Madagascar, 0:25:28.880 --> 0:25:31.880 he made arrangements to create an official channel to take 0:25:31.920 --> 0:25:35.400 care of transporting the pieces to Malaysia for further analysis. 0:25:36.240 --> 0:25:39.520 After liaising with the Malaysian consul, it was agreed that 0:25:39.600 --> 0:25:43.040 all pieces should be delivered to the Honorary Consul to Madagascar, 0:25:43.359 --> 0:25:47.880 Zahid Raza, who in turn would personally supervise their delivery 0:25:47.920 --> 0:25:53.520 to Kuala Lumpa. But then something unexpected occurred. On August 0:25:53.520 --> 0:25:57.600 twenty fourth, shortly after overseeing the transfer of six pieces 0:25:57.640 --> 0:26:01.440 found by Blaine, Sahid Raza was traveling through the island's 0:26:01.480 --> 0:26:05.000 capital and tannon or Evo in his car when an 0:26:05.000 --> 0:26:08.520 individual pulled up beside his vehicle on a motorbike and 0:26:08.640 --> 0:26:12.320 opened fire, killing him instantly in a hail of bullets. 0:26:13.680 --> 0:26:16.359 Though many were quick to note that Raza had made 0:26:16.440 --> 0:26:20.440 numerous enemies during his time in Madagascar, the incident did 0:26:20.520 --> 0:26:23.680 little to quiet and the growing number of conspiracy theories 0:26:23.800 --> 0:26:28.760 surrounding the plane's disappearance. Blaine Gibson, for one, was convinced 0:26:28.800 --> 0:26:33.480 the assassination was connected. In response, he stopped disclosing his 0:26:33.560 --> 0:26:36.679 travel plans to anyone that didn't need to know, stopped 0:26:36.760 --> 0:26:39.720 using email, and rarely spoke to people on the phone. 0:26:40.119 --> 0:26:42.760 He even took to regularly swapping out his SIM card 0:26:42.840 --> 0:26:47.000 for extra precaution. He also became convinced he was being 0:26:47.040 --> 0:26:51.440 followed and photographed. With a renewed sense of purpose, however, 0:26:51.800 --> 0:26:56.600 Blaine continued on his quest. Meanwhile, the official search of 0:26:56.640 --> 0:27:00.000 the ocean floor in the hope of finding the fuselage 0:27:00.040 --> 0:27:04.959 the plane's black box also continued on. Despite covering an 0:27:05.000 --> 0:27:09.000 area roughly two hundred and eight thousand kilometers squared in size, 0:27:09.560 --> 0:27:13.520