Possible causes of the aircraft’s disappearance

In the weeks following flight 370’s disappearance, theories ranged from mechanical failure to pilot suicide. The loss of the ACARS and transponder signals spurred ongoing speculation about some form of hijacking, but no individual or group claimed responsibility, and it seemed unlikely that hijackers would have flown the plane to the southern Indian Ocean. That the signals had likely been switched off from inside the aircraft suggested suicide by one of the crew, but nothing obviously suspicious was found in the behaviour of the captain, the first officer, or the cabin crew immediately prior to the flight. In 2016, New York magazine reported that the pilot, on his home flight simulator, had flown over the southern Indian Ocean less than a month before the plane vanished, a simulated flight that closely matched the missing aircraft’s final path; this revelation, in addition to the release of greater information about the pilot’s personal life, lent credence to the notion of a premeditated pilot-induced mass murder-suicide. After the discovery of the debris, some speculated that flight 370 was shot down, but no evidence of shrapnel from a missile or other projectiles has been found.