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13 hypothesis records

HypothesisUnverified

Alleged thermal / wide-area video is authentic collection

Hypothesis to test — provenance not established in this desk

Circulating clips are treated as alleged. If genuine, at least one collector must satisfy geometry, band, FOV, altitude and comms. Platform IDs attached to social posts are not accepted as authority.

HypothesisOpen

Broader ISR collection architecture (not “MH370 was Orion”)

Working hypothesis of the Drive research programme

If alleged video were authentic, a test/collection architecture could involve a subject aircraft plus airborne/space collectors, C2 links, sensor fusion and PED. Programme overlap with MAGIC/Orion/Gorgon Stare/Blue Devil is documented. The bridge to MH370 is not.

HypothesisOpen

Controlled descent / ditching

Someone still flying at the end

A pilot or system flies a glide after flame-out, so the wreck lies tens of kilometres from the 7th arc. Flaperon damage is read by some independent engineers as consistent with a ditching sequence.

HypothesisUnverified

External / uninterruptible autopilot on 9M-MRO

Engineering precedent exists. Installation on this airframe is not established.

Boeing US7142971B2 and Cubic US6641087B1 describe remote engagement, disconnected cockpit controls, dedicated links. No maintenance/mod/certification record currently in this archive places that architecture on 9M-MRO.

HypothesisOpen

Flight-crew diversion

Manual inputs from the cockpit — who, and why, unproven

The 2018 report says the turn-back likely resulted from manual inputs. It does not identify a crew member as perpetrator and did not treat the home simulator as a plan.

HypothesisOpen

Freescale as a causal thread

Twenty employees confirmed; assignment unreconstructed

Presence is a fact. A defence, inertial, or communications assignment that would matter to MH370 is an open question, not a finding.

HypothesisOfficial finding

Fuel exhaustion, then uncontrolled descent at the 7th arc

Prevailing official end-of-flight model

After a long southern cruise the aircraft flames out near 00:19 UTC, the SDU logs on from APU/emergency power, and the aeroplane leaves controlled flight. Wreckage should lie on or near the 7th arc.

HypothesisOpen

Interstate politics — China, Russia, Iran

Manifest geography is not a state-act finding

Destination Beijing, Chinese majority, Iranian stolen-passport travellers, one Russian national. Facts of who was on board. Not a finding of PLA, FSB, or IRGC action.

HypothesisInconsistent

Manufactured plasma orbs in alleged footage

Not adopted. Drive backup records a negative scientific finding.

Ashton Forbes has claimed laboratory-scale manufactured plasma spheres. The Ashton Hall backup concludes Mead/AFRL propulsion literature does not support metre-scale autonomous plasma orbs.

HypothesisDisputed

Mechanical / cargo-fire failure

Official report: no identified failure mode fits

A running systems failure that also produces a coherent reverse course and six more hours of SATCOM is a poor fit. Lithium-battery cargo was reviewed and not adopted as cause.

HypothesisInconsistent

Northern corridor

Inconsistent with BFO sign and with African debris

Early public maps showed a northern Inmarsat ring. BFO and later debris on western Indian Ocean coasts disfavour it.

HypothesisOpen

Terrorism

Hijack or bomb — not adopted as a finding

Stolen passports and a residual third-party clause keep the hypothesis in the file. No claim of responsibility, no identified bomb, no identified hijack crew.

HypothesisOpen

Third-party intervention

Official report: cannot be excluded

The Annex 13 team wrote that intervention by a third party cannot be excluded. Remote hijack as implemented technology on commercial 777s was ruled out.