Occam’s Razor: Understanding Malaysian Airline Disasters

Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 (MH 370) disappeared March 8, 2014 (MYT) or March 7, 2014 (UTC), less than an hour after takeoff from Kula Lumpur (Capital of Malaysia) en route to Beijing, China (Capital of China), with 227 passengers and a crew of 12. An historic multi-nation search effort has failed to find one smidgen of flight debris, and no crash site has been found.

Now, four months later, Malaysian Airlines Fight 17 (MH 17), on July 17, 2014 (UTC), at 14:15 (GMT), en route to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam (Capital of the Netherlands), with 283 passengers and a crew of 15, crashes in Eastern Ukraine after being shot down by a Russian BUK surface-to-air-missile (SAM).

The question must be asked, what do these two disasters have in common. In this case, the simplest explanation is the best. The principle of Occam’s razor can be applied in this particular context. What these events have in common is Malaysia and Malaysian Airlines.

Why would Malaysian Airlines allow one of its commercial airliners to fly over an air-space where only a few days before a Ukrainian military transport was shot down by a SAM, at high altitude? We know that other commercial airlines such as Qantas and Korean Airlines have changed their normal flight paths to avoid this area.

Why would the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), an United Nations (UN) organization, Euro Control, the European Union Brussels-based agency that coordinates air traffic in Europe, and Ukrainian Air Traffic Control, not restrict commercial air traffic and overflying to this area in eastern Ukraine?

Other countries without jurisdiction have issued warnings and restriction to their carriers. For example, the United Kingdom’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) on June 14^th of this year, urged airlines to avoid overflying the Crimean and parts of southeastern Ukraine due to safety concerns. The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a similar advisory on April 23^rd of this year. Yet, Malaysia and Malaysian Airlines choose to ignore these advisories.

Again, we must ask why? And again, we apply Occam’s razor. It's simple. It's incompetence and stupidity. It’s time to recognize that incompetent officials govern Malaysia. They delayed the search for MH 370 and then issued misleading and false information. I would aver that their obfuscation and misdirection was to escape liability for the incompetence and/or sabotage of their crew and airline officials, or to hide the fact that its Captain and Islamic jihadist hijacked the airliner.

Now, MH 17 is put in harm’s way, directly overflying an active combat zone where SAMs, only a few days before, brought down a high altitude military transport. This incompetence and pleonexia is to what end? To save a few “bucks” on fuel costs!

The western governments and media wish you to believe the downing of MH 17 was: a war crime; a deliberate attack on a civilian commercial airliner; an act of war. It was none of these. It was an accident. It was a mistake. What would the Ukrainian rebels and their Russian master gain by shooting down a commercial airliner and 298 innocent people abroad? I cannot think of one good reason, with emphasis on the good.

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Why am I talking about Malaysian Airlines? You should know by now.

Major western governments and the media, want you to think the disaster of MH 17 is all about Russia and Vladimir Putin. While the avalanche of pronouncements by world leaders and followers, fills the airwaves and sells newsprint with bloody laundry, it is in fact window dressing -- pour la galerie. Its purpose is to cover-up the plethora of foreign policy failures across the planet.

Vladimir Putin is a man of his time. He is what he is – a Russian nationalist, a KGB apparatchik, an Orthodox Christian. He is certainly a lot more, but that is the essence of the man.

He is also the one of the luckiest men in history! His good fortunate is to have Barack Hussein Obama as President of the United States of America.

His mission is clear. It is to resurrect Russia as a major world power, and to resurrect, to the extent the West permits, the Soviet Union (USSR). Mr. Putin has accomplished the former, and is on his way to bring about a significant portion of the later given the leadership in the West. It was logical that Russia would reassert itself on the world stage, especially in the power vacuum created by the Obama Administration. What we are witnessing is no less than a first in world history. Under Barack Hussein Obama, the number one super-power in the world is neutralizing itself – Mr. Putin doesn’t have to do a thing.

It has been Mr. Obama’s goal since taking office on January 20, 2009, to “change” America’s preeminence in world affairs. Examples are: going on tour to apologize to the World; relinquishing a European antimissile-system and get nothing in return; leading from behind in Libya; precipitously pulling troops out of Iraq without a stable political solution; dismantling your country’s defense budget resulting in critical reductions in the nation’s defensive capability; supporting Islamic terrorism such as the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran; allowing Iran to embarrass the United Sates with tripe and disingenuous negotiations; obfuscating the severe damage done by Benghazi; spying on our allies; and lying – lying to everybody.

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World order is in tumult. And none is more so than the southern boarder of the United States of America. America is in peril from the horde of illegal undocumented aliens crossing our southern border from Mexico. The dangers are not inconsequential. They include: communicable diseases; national security; Islamic terrorism; economic collapse; and the essence of being a nation.

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Indeed, for Russia, China, and Islamic Jihadist, it’s all too easy. Who needs missiles or even suicide boomers when you have Mr. Obama and his Democratic Party, America’s political class, European Socialist elitist, and the free world’s mass media? 

Author: Lawrence S. Schneiderman is an International Consultant and Dr. of Public Policy, Vanderbilt University. The views expressed are his own.