The Netflix MH370 Conspiracy Theorists Don't Understand How Radio Signal Jamming Works

That is not how any of this works

When MH370 went missing in 2014, a million conspiracy theories took wing. Netflix has chosen the four most interesting ones for a new three-part series that could benefit from some fact-checking.

Cyndi Hendry remains convinced that she saw ‘wreckage’ all over the South China Sea, identifying specific parts of the Boeing 777 from low-resolution satellite images, and that she was not just experiencing pareidolia from sunlight reflecting on waves.

Aviation journalist Jeff Wise kept finding new reasons to hold out hope that the plane had somethow landed in Central Asia, presumably somewhere near Shangri-La, until he was dismissed from the investigative team for being a kook in public.

Intan Othman, wife of lost co-pilot Mohd Hazrin Mohamed Hasnan, cannot believe that pieces of the plane have been found on the African coast. “Who put them there?” She asks, imitating her reaction at the time.

Perhaps the most tragic figure is Ghyslain Wattrelos, the French citizen who lost a wife and daughter on MH370. His lawyer Marie Dosé has published a book charging that the United States is responsible for the disappearance of the plane. Their litigation is touted as “the only ongoing investigation” into what happened to the missing flight.

It is a grift, and a lucrative one in the age of hybrid warfare. We know it is a grift because the key claim they make about American AWACS aircraft making MH370 disappear has no relationship whatsoever to the reality of radar or signal jamming.

Wattrelos and Dosé know absolutely nothing about electronic warfare. They will never find an actual expert willing to back up their ludicrous story on a witness stand.