Theories
Theories
Each branch is scored from the file. The percentage is a reading of that pile.
Pilot suicide
Deliberate action from the flight deck
The 2018 safety report says the turn-back likely came from manual inputs. It does not name who was flying after IGARI. Capt. John Cox, among others, reads the same radar as a high-likelihood captain act. Simulator files exist; the report did not treat them as a plan.
20 records
78%
More than 50%
Terrorism
Hijack, bomb, or organised political violence
Two passengers used stolen European passports. No group claimed the flight. Kuala Lumpur hosted an al-Qaeda meeting in January 2000 attended by men later on the 9/11 flights. The 2018 report did not convert the passports into a terror finding.
16 records
11%
Less than 50%
US military project
MAGIC, Orion, BIG SAFARI, remote control
Blue Devil, MAGIC, Orion, BIG SAFARI and remote-control patents sit in the same 2013–14 window. Florence de Changy’s AWACS-intercept telling is a different US-military story and sits in the same pile. A public bridge from those programmes to 9M-MRO has not been shown. Location of wreckage is not the same as identity of the actor.
31 records
77%
More than 50%
Freescale
Twenty semiconductor employees on board
Twenty Freescale employees were on board. The last company presentation before the flight showed gyroscopic sensors. Carlyle’s ownership history is public. What those twenty people were assigned to that week is not published.
13 records
34%
Less than 50%
International politics
China, Russia, Iran
Beijing was the destination. Most passengers were Chinese. Jeff Wise’s published hijack telling sends the aircraft north toward Kazakhstan to cover Crimea. African debris and the southern 7th arc are a poor fit for a capture or shoot-down in the South China Sea.
19 records
20%
Less than 50%