WEBVTT - Selects: The Disappearance of Flight MH370, Part I 0:00:00.800 --> 0:00:03.360 Hey, everybody, it's me Joshum. For this week's select I've 0:00:03.400 --> 0:00:06.920 chosen our two part episode on the disappearance of MH 0:00:07.040 --> 0:00:10.600 three P seventy from back in January twenty twenty. It 0:00:10.720 --> 0:00:14.440 is the greatest unsolved mystery in aviation history since the 0:00:14.480 --> 0:00:18.840 disappearance of Amelia Earhart and poor Fred Noonan, which is 0:00:18.880 --> 0:00:22.200 really saying something. It's astounding that with a decade of 0:00:22.239 --> 0:00:26.040 exhaustive time and attention, the plane still hasn't been found. 0:00:26.440 --> 0:00:29.360 Maybe someday, when we're mapping the entire seafloor of the 0:00:29.400 --> 0:00:32.839 Indian Ocean will stumble across it, who knows. But until then, 0:00:33.280 --> 0:00:36.360 enjoy this harrowing mystery episode of Stuff you Should Know. 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:50.640 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:51.280 --> 0:00:53.720 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark and 0:00:53.720 --> 0:00:56.280 as Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and there's Jerry over there. 0:00:56.320 --> 0:01:00.720 And this is Stuff you should Know about one of 0:01:00.760 --> 0:01:07.840 the most interesting mysteries in modern times. Yeah, like it's 0:01:07.880 --> 0:01:11.840 really tough to get across. What a mystery. The missing 0:01:11.920 --> 0:01:14.080 airliner MH three seventy. 0:01:13.840 --> 0:01:17.600 Is Malaysian Airlines Flight three seventy. Yeah, and this is 0:01:18.160 --> 0:01:20.600 it's gonna be a two parter because it's pretty robust. Yeah, 0:01:20.800 --> 0:01:23.000 and boy, hats off to the Grabster. He really put 0:01:23.000 --> 0:01:25.039 together a lot of great research for this one. 0:01:25.120 --> 0:01:27.040 He did. I also want to give a huge shout 0:01:27.080 --> 0:01:31.080 out to one of my journalistic heroes, William Langwash. He 0:01:31.160 --> 0:01:34.039 wrote something he writes in the Atlantic, but he's not 0:01:34.319 --> 0:01:38.040 just an Atlantic writer. He wrote what Really Happened to 0:01:38.080 --> 0:01:41.760 Malaysia's Missing Airplane? Big old long article on it. And 0:01:41.800 --> 0:01:44.280 this guy is an aviation expert to begin with, but 0:01:44.319 --> 0:01:47.240 he's also if you ever read a Tom wolfbook or 0:01:47.560 --> 0:01:50.200 article or whatever, he has a really great knack for 0:01:50.280 --> 0:01:54.160 making you feel like you're there in the action. Yeah, 0:01:54.200 --> 0:01:57.440 But then he also has a knack for making you 0:01:57.520 --> 0:02:00.440 step back and think, how does Tom Wolf know all this? Was? 0:02:00.440 --> 0:02:03.800 He there? William Languish is the same way. And I 0:02:03.920 --> 0:02:07.080 will go ahead and recommend that you not, unless you 0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:10.680 are a very courageous person, read any of his work, 0:02:10.840 --> 0:02:15.720 especially the stuff about airline disasters anytime around when you're flying, 0:02:15.960 --> 0:02:18.200 because he puts you in that plane when it's going 0:02:18.280 --> 0:02:21.760 down or whatever. He's really really good at it. So 0:02:22.040 --> 0:02:25.040 I recommend basically anything Langwich has written go read It's 0:02:25.040 --> 0:02:25.840 worth it for sure. 0:02:26.080 --> 0:02:26.320 Yeah. 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:28.880 And I think this coupled with the brief times that 0:02:28.919 --> 0:02:30.560 we've touched on this kind of thing in the past, 0:02:31.120 --> 0:02:35.119 whether it was dB Cooper or Bermuda triangle, Like, there's 0:02:35.160 --> 0:02:39.799 something about aviation disasters and mysteries that are really intriguing 0:02:39.800 --> 0:02:43.520 to me. And for airline forensics, it's all Rick just 0:02:43.600 --> 0:02:44.680 super super interesting. 0:02:44.880 --> 0:02:47.720 It is. So you talked about airline forensics and that 0:02:47.800 --> 0:02:50.040 kind of stuff. This is lousy with it. Yeah, But 0:02:50.120 --> 0:02:52.480 the reason I was saying why it's tough to overstate 0:02:52.560 --> 0:02:55.080 like what a mystery image three seventy is it's the 0:02:55.080 --> 0:03:01.200 only airliner that has considered disappeared. Yehanished they know where 0:03:01.240 --> 0:03:03.200 all the other ones are, they know what happened to 0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:06.400 all the other ones. It's the only major one that 0:03:06.600 --> 0:03:10.400 is just where the official investigation said we don't know. 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:13.480 Yeah, I mean, and you know, in part two we'll 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:17.240 get to a pretty good well, actually, I think the 0:03:17.280 --> 0:03:20.360 leading theory comes in this episode, but we kind of 0:03:20.400 --> 0:03:22.600 think we know. But it's that thing where you like, 0:03:22.639 --> 0:03:24.280 you can't definitively say. 0:03:24.240 --> 0:03:27.079 Yeah, I can't say where, and you can't say why. 0:03:27.360 --> 0:03:30.440 Right, Yeah, and then the why is yeah, and the 0:03:30.480 --> 0:03:31.840 where are both really confounding. 0:03:31.919 --> 0:03:34.520 Yeah, And the reason why air travel in the twenty 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:38.200 first century is way safer than auto travel is because 0:03:38.240 --> 0:03:42.320 anytime an airliner goes down, everyone in the international community 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:46.560 comes together, yeah, investigates it. They do so openly. The airline, 0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:53.000 the airplane manufacturer, the everyone involved is expected to like 0:03:53.120 --> 0:03:55.240 tell the truth and you get it out there and 0:03:55.280 --> 0:03:57.080 you figure out what went wrong, and then you make 0:03:57.160 --> 0:04:01.480 things safer, and then that makes air travel safer for everybody. 0:04:01.760 --> 0:04:03.920 They couldn't do this for all sorts of reasons with 0:04:04.120 --> 0:04:06.320 m Age three seventy and so it's a huge failing 0:04:07.240 --> 0:04:11.600 among the international community, not for lack of trying, but 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:15.880 because it's just an asterisk out there. It's the only one. 0:04:16.040 --> 0:04:19.560 Yeah, And that's why airplanes don't crash as much anymore. 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:22.000 I mean, growing up, it's not like it was every 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:24.919 other week or anything. But used to hear about airline 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:28.200 crashes enough to where it gave you pause, right, and 0:04:28.240 --> 0:04:29.680 you just don't hear about it much anymore. 0:04:29.680 --> 0:04:33.839 It's true. I mean, it's still out there for sure. 0:04:33.760 --> 0:04:36.480 Yeah, but they seem much more rare than they used 0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:37.760 to be, kind of like skyjackings. 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:41.360 So We'll do our best to put you in the 0:04:41.720 --> 0:04:44.960 in the plane in the passenger seat. Yeah, can we 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:47.640 at least be in business class? Buckle sure? 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:48.160 Okay? 0:04:48.360 --> 0:04:48.600 Sure? 0:04:49.000 --> 0:04:50.120 Were you about to say a buckle up? 0:04:50.240 --> 0:04:53.640 Yeah? Okay, buckle up, because we're gonna take off on 0:04:53.760 --> 0:04:58.760 March eighth, twenty fourteen, in Kuala Lumpur. It's the very 0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:03.120 beginning of March eighth. The takeoff schedule for Malaysian Airlines 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:07.400 Flight three seventy from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing was scheduled 0:05:07.440 --> 0:05:08.719 for twelve thirty five am. 0:05:09.000 --> 0:05:09.320 That's right. 0:05:09.320 --> 0:05:12.159 We're in a Boeing seven seven seven DASH two hundred 0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:16.040 er yep, and there are two hundred and twenty seven 0:05:16.400 --> 0:05:19.520 fellow passengers aboard twelve flight crew YEP. 0:05:20.080 --> 0:05:20.799 It's a lot of people. 0:05:20.920 --> 0:05:24.359 Almost about two thirds of the passengers or Chinese nationals. 0:05:24.400 --> 0:05:27.600 I believe there's a bunch of other people from other countries, 0:05:27.640 --> 0:05:30.320 but for the bulk of the people on the plane 0:05:30.320 --> 0:05:34.719 were from China. And it's a late night flight. It's 0:05:34.800 --> 0:05:39.719 expected to arrive in Beijing at about six o'clock six 0:05:39.880 --> 0:05:43.359 thirty in Beijing time, and it's going to fly over 0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:48.640 the South China Sea, over the Gulf of Thailand, through Laos, Vietnam, 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:54.560 and then into China to arrive at Beijing. It didn't 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:57.600 actually take off at twelve thirty five. They took off 0:05:57.640 --> 0:06:01.320 at twelve forty two. Not too shabby. Seven minutes. I'm 0:06:01.400 --> 0:06:03.400 not like sitting there rocking in my seat like let's 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:06.360 go yet, you know, I might not even even noticed. 0:06:07.040 --> 0:06:10.120 And they take off and it flies up to eighteen 0:06:10.160 --> 0:06:13.920 thousand feet and the air traffic control center at Kuala 0:06:13.960 --> 0:06:17.840 Lumpur says, hey, you guys are cleared for to go 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:20.440 up to thirty five thousand feet, which is cruising altitude 0:06:20.440 --> 0:06:20.919 for this flight. 0:06:20.960 --> 0:06:22.159 I think that's right. 0:06:22.480 --> 0:06:24.880 And at this point, at eighteen thousand, they switched from 0:06:24.920 --> 0:06:28.919 the airport's air traffic to Kuala Lampor Area Control Center. 0:06:29.200 --> 0:06:29.599 Yeah. 0:06:29.640 --> 0:06:32.000 And you know the way, the reason we're mentioning all 0:06:32.040 --> 0:06:35.240 these details is because it turns out they're very important. 0:06:35.200 --> 0:06:36.240 Very important, yees. 0:06:36.279 --> 0:06:37.280 So these are all key. 0:06:37.560 --> 0:06:42.200 Keep rewinding fifteen thirty seconds to get every single detail, okay, 0:06:42.360 --> 0:06:44.640 because you're gonna need them for the big finish. 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:46.880 So four minutes later, like you said, they were cleared 0:06:46.880 --> 0:06:49.840 to go to thirty five thousand. Talking about fifteen minutes 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:55.800 and it's here where Captain Zahari and there were two 0:06:55.839 --> 0:06:59.279 people on board flying this plane. Captain Sahari and what 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:00.280 was the other gentleman. 0:07:00.279 --> 0:07:04.520 Name, First Officer Farik Abdul Hamid, right, and Captain saw 0:07:04.760 --> 0:07:09.239 Zahari Ahmad Shah is piloting the plane. First Officer Hamid. 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:12.000 This is his last training flight. After this, he'll be 0:07:12.040 --> 0:07:14.960 fully certified to fly Boeing seven to seventy seven's, which 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:17.800 if you're a commercial airline pilot, that's pretty much the 0:07:17.840 --> 0:07:18.520 peak right there. 0:07:18.720 --> 0:07:20.560 Yeah, and that's important too because one of them is 0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:24.000 a very experienced pilot in his fifties. The other one 0:07:24.080 --> 0:07:26.560 is a brand new kind of greenhorn, and that's going 0:07:26.640 --> 0:07:27.600 to factor in for sure. 0:07:27.680 --> 0:07:27.880 Yep. 0:07:28.440 --> 0:07:30.160 So, like I said, it took. 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:32.280 About fifteen minutes to get to thirty five thousand feet, 0:07:32.320 --> 0:07:37.280 and this is when the lead pilot radios that Kuala 0:07:37.360 --> 0:07:40.800 Lampoor Control Center says we're at thirty five thousand feet. 0:07:41.400 --> 0:07:45.280 Then seven minutes later he radios again says, by the way, 0:07:45.960 --> 0:07:46.600 we're still. 0:07:46.400 --> 0:07:47.840 And this is not me doing him. I don't know 0:07:47.880 --> 0:07:48.560 what he sounded like. 0:07:51.280 --> 0:07:56.800 There you go, this is Captain Zahari. Yeah, everybody sounds 0:07:56.800 --> 0:07:57.440 like Chuck Yeager. 0:07:57.560 --> 0:07:58.080 Yeah, I guess so. 0:07:58.840 --> 0:08:00.760 So he confirmed to give that they were at thirty 0:08:00.760 --> 0:08:03.200 five thousand feet. And this is where Ed points out 0:08:03.200 --> 0:08:06.240 that this wasn't some sort of big alarming thing. But 0:08:06.480 --> 0:08:09.960 what usually happens is you radio in when you leave 0:08:10.000 --> 0:08:12.800 an altitude, not when you arrive. And you also don't 0:08:12.920 --> 0:08:15.360 radio in seven minutes later and say, by the way, 0:08:15.600 --> 0:08:18.080 we're still at thirty five thousand feet, still here, like 0:08:18.120 --> 0:08:19.800 once you hit it, you're just sort of there that 0:08:19.840 --> 0:08:21.360 you're cruising altitude. 0:08:20.880 --> 0:08:23.240 Right, So it's it wasn't alarming or anything, but it 0:08:23.320 --> 0:08:27.120 was weird that he made those two radio transmissions, but 0:08:27.520 --> 0:08:30.400 there was nothing compared to the weirdness that was about 0:08:30.440 --> 0:08:35.000 to take place. That's right shortly after that, I think 0:08:35.040 --> 0:08:40.400 at one twenty nineteen am. Yeah, qual Umpoor Area Control Center. 0:08:40.480 --> 0:08:42.040 It's like eleven minutes later. 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:45.600 Yeap said, hey, mhe three seventy you're about to leave 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:51.240 our jurisdiction and enter Ho Chi Minh's jurisdiction. Go ahead 0:08:51.240 --> 0:08:55.160 and contact Ho Chi Minh air Traffic Control and let 0:08:55.160 --> 0:08:58.959 them know you are on with them on this frequency. 0:08:59.200 --> 0:08:59.400 Yeah. 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:01.880 I mean, if you remember our air traffic control podcast, 0:09:02.000 --> 0:09:04.760 you're handed off like, you don't just stick with one 0:09:04.800 --> 0:09:07.240 air traffic control when you fly around the world. No, 0:09:07.480 --> 0:09:09.520 you're handed off all along the way whenever you enter 0:09:09.559 --> 0:09:12.479 the airspace of that whatever district. 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:14.240 Precisely, and the way that it's set up is there's 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:17.000 not supposed to be any time where you're just flying 0:09:17.120 --> 0:09:19.640 alone and then you move into the other one. You're 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:21.160 going right from one to the other. 0:09:21.280 --> 0:09:22.080 You want to hand off. 0:09:22.400 --> 0:09:29.400 So Captain Zahari responded with good night Malaysian three seven zero. 0:09:29.960 --> 0:09:32.640 Those are the last words anyone heard from Captain Zahari 0:09:32.679 --> 0:09:36.280 as far as we know, And that in and of 0:09:36.360 --> 0:09:39.920 itself was kind of an odd transmission because typically any 0:09:40.240 --> 0:09:45.160 airline captain would have replied with the frequency, said the 0:09:45.160 --> 0:09:47.880 frequency back to confirm that that was the right one. 0:09:48.000 --> 0:09:50.160 But instead all I said was good night Malaysian three 0:09:50.280 --> 0:09:54.000 seven zero. And very shortly after that, two minutes later, 0:09:55.320 --> 0:09:59.400 MHE three seventy disappeared from the radar the moment it 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:03.240 showed up on ho Chi Minh air Traffic Controls radar screens. 0:10:03.679 --> 0:10:07.920 It just vanished right without ever having made contact with 0:10:08.000 --> 0:10:10.079 them right via radio frequency. 0:10:11.000 --> 0:10:13.520 This should have like set off alarms with ho Chi 0:10:13.559 --> 0:10:17.640 Minh City and apparently they did notice. Kuala Lumpur didn't notice. 0:10:18.000 --> 0:10:20.559 The guy was they had all this other air traffic to. 0:10:20.520 --> 0:10:22.240 Deal Yeah, and they were out of their zone at 0:10:22.240 --> 0:10:23.000 this point, yep. 0:10:23.120 --> 0:10:25.280 And he'd said good night, and you know everybody knows 0:10:25.320 --> 0:10:26.760 good night. You can't go back on that. You have 0:10:26.840 --> 0:10:32.079 to wait until tomorrow to make contact again. So the 0:10:33.120 --> 0:10:36.160 kual Umpur's I don't know about blameless in this, but 0:10:36.360 --> 0:10:41.640 certainly less blameful than Tochim Ho Chi Minh and Ho 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:44.480 Chi Minh noticed that they just disappeared from the screen, 0:10:44.760 --> 0:10:48.000 but it took them a full eighteen minutes before they 0:10:48.080 --> 0:10:50.880 called Kuala Lumpur and said, hey, do you know anything 0:10:50.920 --> 0:10:54.640 about where MH three seventy is because they kind of 0:10:54.720 --> 0:10:56.400 vanished from our radar. 0:10:56.880 --> 0:11:00.400 Yeah, Like, I don't know the exact process, and they're defense. 0:11:00.480 --> 0:11:02.280 They were trying to get in touch. It's not like 0:11:02.320 --> 0:11:04.880 they just said, well, we'll see what happens. They got 0:11:04.920 --> 0:11:07.600 in touch with another pilot who was nearby in that 0:11:07.679 --> 0:11:11.520 airspace to contact them, and this pilot reported there was 0:11:11.559 --> 0:11:14.440 interference and static. I heard mumbling on the other end, 0:11:14.480 --> 0:11:16.280 but that's the last we heard and we lost connection. 0:11:16.600 --> 0:11:18.920 Right, We're not even sure that he was talking to 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:19.680 the right people. 0:11:19.880 --> 0:11:21.960 Yeah, so, I mean they were trying to get in touch, 0:11:22.000 --> 0:11:24.800 but you're right, I think like sooner than eighteen minutes, 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:27.000 they should have said, by the way, this plane that 0:11:27.120 --> 0:11:29.280 just left your airspace has disappeared, Like, do you know 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:29.840 what's going on? 0:11:30.000 --> 0:11:30.160 Right? 0:11:30.200 --> 0:11:34.240 Protocol, international protocol is five minutes, okay, So they waited 0:11:34.280 --> 0:11:38.120 thirteen minutes longer than protocol dictated, and it was so 0:11:38.360 --> 0:11:41.119 much beyond when they should have called that. The controller 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:44.560 in Kuala Impour actually said on the record, like, why 0:11:44.559 --> 0:11:46.680 didn't you call me sooner? How are you just calling 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:47.280 me about this? 0:11:47.360 --> 0:11:49.240 Like that may still have been yesterday, right. 0:11:49.160 --> 0:11:51.839 It's missing for eighteen minutes, which, as we'll get to 0:11:52.040 --> 0:11:55.200 later on stuff that came up in the investigation, that 0:11:55.720 --> 0:11:59.040 was just the first step in a series of missteps, right, 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:02.719 that led to the reason why MH three seventy may 0:12:02.840 --> 0:12:03.760 never be found. 0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:07.559 Yeah, so should we take a little break and talk 0:12:07.559 --> 0:12:09.880 about radar radar O'Reilly. 0:12:11.200 --> 0:12:12.280 We'll be back right after this. 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:40.160 Radar O'Reilly not. 0:12:40.200 --> 0:12:45.160 Radar O'Reilly, radar used by air traffic control, so different. 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:50.079 It is different than radar o'reiley. This is called secondary 0:12:50.160 --> 0:12:53.439 radar and it sends out a little beam that it's 0:12:53.520 --> 0:12:56.080 very narrow and it sweeps the area, and on board 0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:59.720 the aircraft they have a transponder that the Texas beam 0:12:59.800 --> 0:13:02.480 and their own signal back that says this how fast 0:13:02.480 --> 0:13:02.880 we're going? 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:06.560 Is where we're headed? And a code that says and 0:13:06.600 --> 0:13:07.320 this is who I am? 0:13:07.480 --> 0:13:10.200 Yeah, maybe even MH three seventy, as simple as that, 0:13:10.320 --> 0:13:12.800 something like that. That's right, that's what's supposed to show 0:13:12.880 --> 0:13:16.520 up on air traffic controls radar screen. That's so they 0:13:16.559 --> 0:13:19.960 can see, oh, here's MH three seventy coming toward DL 0:13:20.160 --> 0:13:21.880 seventeen twenty two or whatever. 0:13:21.679 --> 0:13:22.360 At this speed. 0:13:22.559 --> 0:13:25.520 Right, Yeah, they have all this information, and that's called 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:29.160 secondary radar. Primary radar is what you think where it's like, 0:13:29.840 --> 0:13:32.720 you know, it's a blip on a screen that this big, 0:13:33.600 --> 0:13:38.280 this big radar ray is bouncing off of and receiving 0:13:38.360 --> 0:13:41.920 information back from. But it's just you see, it's physically there. 0:13:42.040 --> 0:13:44.640 This has far more information, and that's what air traffic 0:13:44.640 --> 0:13:46.559 control around the world uses. 0:13:46.400 --> 0:13:48.640 Right, And this is very key because just a few 0:13:48.679 --> 0:13:51.880 seconds after it made that switch or into ho Chi 0:13:51.920 --> 0:13:57.640 Men's airspace, the transponder stops sending information that transponder that's 0:13:57.640 --> 0:13:59.720 supposed to say who you are, where you are, and 0:13:59.760 --> 0:14:04.360 how going just stopped. It vanished, and this is when 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:08.600 the ball was dropped by a little bit by Kuala 0:14:08.679 --> 0:14:10.880 Lamport not noticing, and definitely by ho Chi men not 0:14:10.960 --> 0:14:14.319 doing anything immediately in response to Kuala lamp or. 0:14:14.520 --> 0:14:14.720 Right. 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:19.600 So, primary radar, the radar that you typically think of 0:14:19.640 --> 0:14:23.320 when you think of radar, there are very few places 0:14:23.400 --> 0:14:26.560 in the world where you can't be tracked by someone 0:14:27.040 --> 0:14:30.400 on radar. It's fairly old technology. It's been around for 0:14:30.440 --> 0:14:34.800 a while. But the places where you can't be tracked 0:14:34.880 --> 0:14:38.920 can be vast over the ocean, in the desert, over 0:14:39.040 --> 0:14:42.120 extremely mountainous or wooded areas. There are places where you 0:14:42.160 --> 0:14:47.520 can't really put a radar tower and you can disappear 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:50.440 from radar. Right there's I think what I'm trying to 0:14:50.480 --> 0:14:54.360 say here is if you take your plane out of 0:14:54.440 --> 0:14:57.080 radar range and you turn off your transponder, you can 0:14:57.160 --> 0:15:01.760 make a modern airliner as big as a seven seventy 0:15:01.760 --> 0:15:05.280 seven Vanish where people don't know where it is. And 0:15:05.320 --> 0:15:08.840 that's a really I think hallmark point or trait to 0:15:08.920 --> 0:15:12.040 this mystery that kind of like gets people a little 0:15:12.120 --> 0:15:14.560 unnerved is wait a minute, like this is the twenty 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:18.000 first century, This happened in twenty fourteen. What do you mean? 0:15:18.040 --> 0:15:21.720 There's times and situations where an airliner can disappear and 0:15:21.760 --> 0:15:24.720 people don't know where it is. And that was the situation, 0:15:24.840 --> 0:15:28.280 and as Ho Chi Minh City and Kualaumpur are starting 0:15:28.280 --> 0:15:30.440 to scramble to try to figure out, you know, where 0:15:30.480 --> 0:15:34.000 this is. Apparently they called Malaysian Airlines and said, hey, 0:15:34.120 --> 0:15:39.080 do you know anything about MH three seventy. Malaysian Airlines said, oh, yeah, 0:15:39.080 --> 0:15:41.480 they're flying over Cambodia right now, and they're like where, 0:15:41.520 --> 0:15:43.920 what do you how are you seeing this? After an hour, 0:15:44.040 --> 0:15:47.000 finally Malaysian Airlines is like, no, we're just referring to 0:15:47.040 --> 0:15:49.720 the flight plan. They should be over Cambodia right now. 0:15:49.720 --> 0:15:52.040 What do you mean you can't find them? What's going on? 0:15:52.480 --> 0:15:54.400 Yeah? But because of that primary radar. 0:15:55.040 --> 0:15:57.360 The secondary radar wasn't functioning like we said, because the 0:15:57.360 --> 0:16:00.920 transponder was off, but the primary radar did track them 0:16:00.960 --> 0:16:05.720 for about an hour after those communications dropped. Because of 0:16:05.760 --> 0:16:07.840 the Malaysian military was able to track it with the 0:16:07.880 --> 0:16:08.680 primary radar. 0:16:08.800 --> 0:16:12.720 Yeah, apparently it flew through the primary radar of five 0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:16.120 different countries and the only one that bothered to track 0:16:16.160 --> 0:16:21.320 it was Malaysia's Air Force. Yeah, but they didn't do 0:16:21.360 --> 0:16:23.760 anything about it. They didn't follow up to see who 0:16:23.840 --> 0:16:26.320 it was, They didn't scramble any jets to go see 0:16:26.480 --> 0:16:28.840 if everybody was okay, or they just knew that there 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:32.440 was an unidentified plane flying through Malaysian airspace and the 0:16:32.480 --> 0:16:35.120 Air Force didn't do anything about it. This is embarrassing 0:16:35.240 --> 0:16:38.000 enough that the Air Force didn't reveal this to anybody 0:16:38.000 --> 0:16:41.280 for a while, which was a really important point because 0:16:41.640 --> 0:16:45.880 during this time, about an hour, about an hour and 0:16:45.920 --> 0:16:49.560 a half after the takeoff and an hour after the 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:53.200 thing disappeared from transponders, the Malaysian Air Force was tracking 0:16:53.320 --> 0:16:57.680 MH three seventy and it saw that it seemed to 0:16:57.840 --> 0:16:58.760 have taken a turn. 0:16:59.400 --> 0:17:01.920 Yeah, I mean they know what happened at this point. 0:17:01.960 --> 0:17:04.680 For a little while, it made a sharp turn. 0:17:04.440 --> 0:17:06.639 That was not part of the planned flight plan. 0:17:06.800 --> 0:17:07.560 No, not at all. 0:17:07.600 --> 0:17:11.359 This is where things definitely took a metaphorical and literal turn. 0:17:12.119 --> 0:17:16.040 It headed southwest at that point, crossed over the Malay Peninsula, 0:17:16.640 --> 0:17:20.320 over Malaysia again, and then parts of Thailand. Then it 0:17:20.320 --> 0:17:22.879 made a right turn. This is very key near the 0:17:22.880 --> 0:17:25.880 island of Penang, just put a pin in that then 0:17:25.920 --> 0:17:30.439 headed west by northwest towards the Andaman c and then 0:17:30.480 --> 0:17:34.199 at two twenty two am vanished from radar, from that 0:17:34.280 --> 0:17:35.840 primary radar as well. 0:17:36.560 --> 0:17:40.680 Right, So the Malaysian Air Force saw this happen on 0:17:40.680 --> 0:17:43.720 this radar, it didn't tell anybody for a while. The 0:17:43.760 --> 0:17:47.439 flight plan had it leaving Malaysia, crossing over the Strait 0:17:47.440 --> 0:17:53.360 of Malacca into the peninsula where Thailand is located, into 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:58.800 China right just away from Malaysia. And from what the 0:17:58.840 --> 0:18:01.719 Malaysian Air Force saw, this thing doubled back on itself 0:18:01.760 --> 0:18:05.199 and then went in some totally different directions, almost the 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:07.960 opposite direction it was supposed to be going in. And 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:09.879 like you said, it dropped off of the radar, and 0:18:09.880 --> 0:18:12.560 that was the last time anyone saw it on radar. 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:17.080 But that's not the last time we were able to 0:18:17.160 --> 0:18:22.320 track MGE three seventy And that's thanks to a satellite 0:18:22.400 --> 0:18:25.560 network that's run by an outfit called in Marsat. 0:18:26.000 --> 0:18:27.200 Yeah, so in Marsat. 0:18:27.240 --> 0:18:29.880 If you've ever been on a plane and you've enjoyed 0:18:29.880 --> 0:18:34.520 the benefits of watching movies, streaming or connected to your 0:18:34.520 --> 0:18:38.480 computer via Wi Fi. That is because of satellite communication. 0:18:40.240 --> 0:18:43.960 These airplanes are equipped with a system and it transfers 0:18:44.080 --> 0:18:47.919 data and all their voice communications via satellite. And some 0:18:48.000 --> 0:18:50.919 of this data from the plane is automatically shared with 0:18:50.960 --> 0:18:54.160 these ground tracking stations, which is a really big deal. 0:18:54.240 --> 0:18:56.439 So not only are they letting you watch movies and 0:18:56.480 --> 0:18:59.800 doing all that, but it's sending this automatic data on 0:18:59.840 --> 0:19:03.040 a regular on the rag basically from that satellite to 0:19:03.080 --> 0:19:04.000 these ground stations. 0:19:04.280 --> 0:19:09.879 Right, so they think by this time, actually I believe 0:19:09.920 --> 0:19:13.760 they know by this time m H three seventies, navigational systems, 0:19:14.640 --> 0:19:19.080 entertainment systems, a bunch of its systems have been turned off. 0:19:19.800 --> 0:19:23.719 The only thing that was still operating was this satellite 0:19:23.760 --> 0:19:26.560 link I guess beacon. 0:19:26.880 --> 0:19:28.520 Yeah, it's called a satellite data unit. 0:19:28.640 --> 0:19:31.639 Okay, so the satellite data unit which was capable of 0:19:32.880 --> 0:19:38.440 contacting and receiving contact from the m MAR satellites. Now, 0:19:38.560 --> 0:19:41.679 at the time, no one knows that this is happening, right, Like, 0:19:41.760 --> 0:19:44.479 there's no sound being made, there's nobody tracking this. This 0:19:44.520 --> 0:19:48.480 all came out much later when in Marsat realized they 0:19:48.480 --> 0:19:52.760 were sitting on a bunch of data. But during different 0:19:53.040 --> 0:19:58.639 points over the next six seven hours, the satellite and 0:19:58.720 --> 0:20:01.600 the satellite data unit talk to each other under a 0:20:01.600 --> 0:20:05.400 few different circumstances. And because of this, this company in Marsat, 0:20:05.400 --> 0:20:09.320 which is located a headquartered in Great Britain, but literally 0:20:10.760 --> 0:20:14.080 covers the globe not just with airline stuff but maritime 0:20:14.119 --> 0:20:17.360 thing which I think where they were originally they were 0:20:17.359 --> 0:20:25.040 originally founded to do, is to enable maritime communications. Like 0:20:25.080 --> 0:20:28.880 you know, satellite phone you're calling through in Marsat. Yeah, right, 0:20:29.920 --> 0:20:34.800 So they've got this whole constellation of satellites and when 0:20:34.840 --> 0:20:38.119 in Marsett heard about MH three seventy, they were like, 0:20:38.240 --> 0:20:41.239 we're all bet our satellites were tracking this thing in 0:20:41.240 --> 0:20:42.919 some way, shape or form. And it turns out that 0:20:42.960 --> 0:20:43.520 they were right. 0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:46.360 Yeah, And there's four and this is important here. There's 0:20:46.359 --> 0:20:51.359 four different ways or circumstances where that satellite data unit 0:20:51.400 --> 0:20:54.560 on the plane is communicating with the satellite in space. 0:20:55.320 --> 0:20:58.640 Whenever you're making a data transmission or a voice transmission, 0:20:59.600 --> 0:21:02.480 whenever or someone on the ground tries to contact the plane. 0:21:03.480 --> 0:21:06.680 There's something that happens every hour. If no one has 0:21:06.920 --> 0:21:09.240 made either one of these contacts for an hour, you 0:21:09.280 --> 0:21:11.639 get a check in called a handshake. It's just like 0:21:11.720 --> 0:21:14.120 you're still here, shake hands, buddy, Yeah, just. 0:21:14.320 --> 0:21:15.919 Want to make sure you're logged on. It's kind of 0:21:15.960 --> 0:21:19.600 like when you watch too much Netflix, and Netflix enter 0:21:19.600 --> 0:21:24.159 the message, yeah, have you finished all the tub of 0:21:24.160 --> 0:21:24.920 cookie dough yet? 0:21:25.000 --> 0:21:25.200 Yeah? 0:21:25.240 --> 0:21:27.880 And then it as the thing that says go outside, right, 0:21:28.000 --> 0:21:29.879 or actually it doesn't. It says, watch another one. 0:21:29.840 --> 0:21:31.840 Watch some more, why not have some more cookie dough? 0:21:31.920 --> 0:21:34.159