In the Firing Line

This time, I'm the one answering the questions -- hard ones, from the host of the "Sit Down With Sid" podcast

Sid Gandotra interviews a lot of people from different corners of MH370 world, including a lot of people who frankly I don’t see eye to eye with. I consider him a neutral arbiter: he’s willing to listen to what others have to say, and he’s not afraid to pass on the criticisms of me that he’s heard from other people. In today’s episode I respond to some of those critiques.

I appreciate that Sid gave me the opportunity to pull back and look at the mystery from a more holistic perspective than I usually do. Usually, I focus on one narrow aspect of the case, because I believe that only by looking at every piece of evidence carefully can we build a really rigorous understanding. But I think that can be frustrating for viewers who are new to the case, and would like an overview.

Among the topics we discuss in today’s episode:

• Am I, as some have claimed, a conspiracy theorist?

• Does the pilot-suicide theory match what we know about Zaharie?

• Why does the abduction of MH370 resemble an act of deception?

• What are the problems presented by the marine organisms found growing the recovered pieces of debris?

• Why is Occam's Razor a poor heuristic for this case?

• If Russian intelligence hijacked the plane, what was the motive?

After the interview, I discuss viewers' response to the last poll question, which asked what people thought was the most plausible explanation for why the plane's crash wasn't detected by either of the hydroacoustic networks operational at the time. I found the results fascinating. Be sure to check out, the current ongoing poll, which asks about the official explanation for the disappearance.