Flight 370: Could Russia Be Involved

As the families of MH370 passengers and crew desperately cling to hope while they wait for the next small dribble of information to come from Malaysian authorities; more and more theories immerge concerning the ongoing mystery.   While many despise all the various theories and dismiss them as merely unhelpful conjecture; I would argue that developing a theory is essential to solving any problem that contains unknowns.

I understand that the diversion I am about to present would “hopefully” not fool outside nation’s intelligence gathering efforts on the ongoing Russian/Ukraine conflict; it would however be designed to reduce the number of less desired press stories available to the Russian people by focusing the world press on something other than Crimea.  This condition would be more conducive to having only Russian stories reach the Russian people which would be supportive to a continuation of their propaganda philosophy.

Okay, Flight MH370.  It took off and was last heard from about an hour or so into its flight.  There is evidence of human intervention to shut down some communications.  There is evidence that it headed west toward the Indian Ocean.  As of the writing the latest reports show projected locations going either north or south based upon Satellite analysis (Red Lines on the map below which I borrowed from CNN).  These potential locations are based upon beacons received by a single satellite from the plane as it flew; essentially because of the technology they can only know range (there is not enough information to identify azimuth).  It all stems from response latency (How long does a signal traveling at the speed of light take to get from point-A to point-B).  As I said earlier, this is all I know at this time.

One caveat before I move onto my Theory (absolute conjecture) and why I believe it is possible to at least theorize about a possible Russian government involvement with the missing flight:  Over the past week, Chinas has twice provided information that diverted investigators away from the westward search.  They first had satellite photos and then had seismic readings that pointed more to an eastern track for Flight 370; both Chinese claims turned out to be more diversionary than helpful.  While these known Chinese facts may be subtle; they are what actually started my thinking along these lines.  China is, at the very least, an ally of convenience to the Russian government.

What I will now propose is a possibility that may be easily proven wrong due to my lack of access to some important and relevant information; primarily concerning timeline reality and whether or not the second airline flight I am about to insert into the MH370 mystery actually fulfills the assumptions I am about to make.   But here it goes.

It appears that flight SQ72, another Boeing 777, takes off from Changi Airport in Singapore at around 0245; this flight is non-stop from Singapore to Moscow.  This assumption leads me to two potential possibilities:

1.  SQ72 took off and met up with MH370 over the Indian Ocean.  MH370 then tucked in close to SQ72 and masked itself inside SQ72 transponder returns until it reached its preplanned destination inside Russian territory (one of the territories that end in stand) where MH370 then landed. Or…
2. SQ72 for some preplanned reason did not take off.  Based upon my new found interpretation of air travel in this part of the world, it may be likely that the only two airports that even know the flight was canceled would be Moscow and Changi.  If this were in fact the case, it would be possible for those now in charge of MH370 to turn on the same equipment they had shut off earlier, transmit the proper code for SQ72, and continue on as if it were in fact Flight SQ72 until it reached its destination (again one of the stand territories).

Like I said, I am unsure about the timeline; but, if you look at my augmentation to the CNN Map below it is at least possible that MH370 (disguised as or masked by SQ72) could have flown very close to a spot associated with the last transmission recorded by Satellite.

The facts point to someone flying MH370 away from its original flight plan.  I have a hard time believing they did that just to crash hundreds of miles away into the Indian Ocean.  Not sure why terrorist would do that.  Not sure why a suicidal pilot would do that.

It is now a worldwide fact that unknown aircraft can fly across Malaysian airspace without any kind of response from their Military. While this is a newly disclosed security vulnerability to most of us; I am quite sure any world power worth its salt was aware of this fact.

Not sure if it is now fact, but it was reported that MH370 zigzagged through various way points on its way to the Indian Ocean; this would burn up time.  Time needed to allow SQ62 to get in place.

It is fact, that most civil radars are considered 2D radars, meaning they see range and Azimuth and rely on Airplane transponders to provide altitude.  Two planes flying the right profile could easily look like one to civil radars; so long as only one has their transponder on.  The Military would not be alerted if conditions looked normal for any particular flight.

Unfortunately, if this theory is even close to correct, nobody along the way would have paid much attention to the flight (it would have appeared normal); including the landing at a known airport.  The area to focus overhead and ground surveillance resources is shown on the below map.  Regrettably, hiding the aircraft over the past week or more would not have taken too much effort.

The facts would also lead me to believe that a terrorist organization would not have the logistics to do this without governments support; in the event they wanted to one day use this plane as a WMD delivery system.  It could have absolutely been done for this purpose with government support, but the supporting government would have to get something out of it. The Russian Government stays in control through strong-arm tactics and propaganda.  Mature military, intelligence agencies, and governments understand the power of diversion.

My earlier posts outline why I believe the Russian government is doing what they are doing; essentially they need to maintain a positive control over the pipelines in Ukraine.  However, I believe it is possible to at least demonstrate that the missing Malaysian flight could actually be part of their overall scheme.  In a nutshell, the Russian government must control through strong arm tactics and propaganda,   since the internet has made it possible for Russians to hear differing reports from around the world the Russian government had only two alternatives to control the Crimea message.   One would be to cut off or limit internet access to and from their country; this would most likely cause uproar among the Russian people and create unwanted conditions.  The second, more likely KGB type alternative, would be to focus the world press on a bigger story (create a diversion).