Flight 370

Finally a theory that actually fits the facts and requires neither mental gymnastics nor radical imputation of wrong doing: a fire in the cockpit.

At the first indication of any smoke or fire, the crew should have immediately donned their oxygen masks. If they didn’t, the smoke from any cockpit fire would have quickly overcome them. Seeing smoke, the cabin crew would have attempted to contact the captain. Failing this, they would have donned their smoke hoods and entered the flight deck with fire extinguishers.

However, if the entire flight crew was incapacitated, the airplane would simply have flown on autopilot until it ran out of fuel. And that is what appears to have happened.

What may have caused the fire in the first place? It could be something as simple as undetected damage to the center pedestal wire bundles, caused by rough handling during maintenance or a mouse chewing through the insulation. Once again, we will not know until the aircraft is recovered.

However, it is my professional opinion that, when we finally do unravel this mystery, the pilots and flight attendants of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 will be lauded as heroes.

I instantly thought of the 1999 Learjet that crashed in South Dakota.

Our brains are wired to make connections, even where they are none.  We have an innate desire to create a narrative to explain the universe.  Never account to chance what can be blamed on God's vengeance for our sin, witches in our midst, UFO's, or a government conspiracy.  We want a emotionally satisfying "why" when the most we can hope for is a technically descriptive "how."

Maybe the disaster which befell the airliner is something completely different, yet still, I anticipate the final answer will be mundane and leave many unsatisfied looking for a more complex explanation.