'Startlingly Simple' Plane Theory Veteran Pilot Outlines How Tire Fire Might Have Crippled Jetliner

• Published in: Valley news (West Lebanon, N.H.)
• Main Author: Wise, Jeff
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: White River Junction, Vt Valley News 20.03.2014
• ISSN: 1072-6179

Chris Goodfellow doesn't have much patience for the uncertainty concerning Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. The instrument-rated Florida pilot found the theories and counter theories mooted on outlets like CNN "almost disturbing." (I've appeared on CNN to discuss Flight 370, but I'll try not to take Goodfellow's remarks personally.) So he set about cutting through the clutter, using nothing more than the machete-like incisiveness of his own intellect. "I tend to look for a more simple explanation," he writes in a Google Plus post that was republished on Wired. "Thanks to Google earth I spotted Langkawi in about 30 seconds, zoomed in and saw how long the runway was," Goodfellow wrote on his Google Plus page on March 14. "I just instinctively knew this pilot knew this airport." In a stroke, Goodfellow had solved the mystery of MH370 - not only what caused the crash, but where the wreckage would be found. What's more, his revelation rehabilitated the reputations of the captain and first officer, who have come under an increasing cloud of suspicion. "This pilot," Goodfellow wrote, "was hero struggling with an impossible situation. Smart pilot. Just didn't have time."