Netflix has failed dismally in its mission and promise to deliver a first-class documentary with its three-part MH370: The Plane that Disappeared and its credibility is forever tarnished.
Netflix has an enormous responsibility to maintain integrity and honesty when it is a highly respected global brand known for delivering hard-hitting and incisive documentaries.
The next of kin, and the wider global community, have for nine long years been subjected to endless conspiracy theories of what happened to the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 with 239 aboard which disappeared on March 8, 2014, and the Netflix three-part series has given enormous credibility to two of the most bizarre theories that even wild Si-Fi geeks would laugh at.
Worse, the author of one of the bizarre conspiracy theories -hijacked by Russians – Jeff Wise was given a narrator role and also took most of the second episode while the other, Florence de Changy, who says it was shot down by the US over the South China Sea gets virtually the entire last episode.
The key issue with the documentary is that it offered far too little in the form of actual documentation and far too much in the form of wild speculation, conspiracy theories, and ill-conceived sensationalism.
What is more, it duped real experts such as Mike Exner, a retired satellite company CEO and pilot, into appearing on the basis that the series would focus on facts.
“Before agreeing to be interviewed for the series, I asked for and received assurances from RAW
producers that this was going to be a “first-class documentary”. They said it would be focused primarily
on the Next of Kin (NoK) stories. As for the story about what happened to the plane, they assured me
that they would stick to the facts and the science, and not dwell on the debunked conspiracies
promoted by people like Jeff Wise and Florence de Changy, Mr Exner said.
“As soon as I saw the trailer I was concerned. I thought, what was the conspiracy bookseller Jeff Wise doing in this fact and science-based documentary? Two of the NoK (one appearing in the series) told me that after seeing Jeff Wise in the trailer, they would never watch the series. Another person appearing in the series stated to me “…what a steaming pile of horse shit it is. Disgraceful.” I concur. And I feel betrayed by RAW. It is shameful beyond belief.”
One of the NOK K S (Naren) Narendran who lost his wife on MH370 has set up a blog dedicated to her memory and he has headlined his post, Netflix On MH370: The Truth That Disappeared.
Naren states: “Netflix’s latest documentary on MH370, MH370: The Plane That Disappeared, was a difficult watch—it wasn’t just pointless, it was plain irresponsible. If honest, they should have admitted at the outset that it is a fictional drama inspired by real-life events, featuring real people playing themselves. Viewers should be advised to not treat it as a serious documentary seeking to inform or educate the viewer. It is a slick production—and we know Netflix doesn’t stinge—about which we can say no more than that it is a lavish exercise in gaslighting.”
“Conspiracy sells, feeding on the widespread suspicion of an incomplete official narrative. It is easier to raise doubt than to establish the truth, and while it feels heroic to be the challenger, credibility suffers when alternate explanations don’t have a solid leg to stand on,” said Naren.
In a closing statement, Naren says that “the conspiracies peddled in this series are an insult to the continuing trauma of the families.”
There are countless errors of fact in the Netflix MH370 documentary caused in large part by the focus on two of the authors of the most bizarre theories of what happened to the plane.
First and foremost, according to another MH370 expert Richard Godfrey, who refused to be part of the series is that “Inmarsat satellite data is captured and distributed in real-time from the ground station and cannot be manipulated or fabricated in real-time in multiple databases.”
The second most critical error was the dismissal of the debris collected with the viewer left with the sense that all the debris was found by the “attention-seeking Russian spy Blaine Gibson.”
The opposite is the case. Twenty-two pieces of debris have been confirmed as coming from MH370 by part numbers (8), in stencil marks (6), Malaysian Airlines System internal materials (4), or conformity to Boeing 777-200ER drawings and specifications (4). Another 17 pieces are highly likely to have come from MH370. Of those only 8 have been found by Blaine Gibson.
Rather than attention seeking Mr Gibson was using media to broadcast the fact that locals need to hand debris in rather than use it as washing boards or dinner tables.
Mr Godfrey told AirlineRatings.com that “as well as Blaine, Johny Begue, Schalk Lückhoff, Neels Kruger, Liam Lotter, Milson Tovontsoa, Rija Ravolatra, Eodia Andriamahery, Jean Dominique, Suzy Vitry, Barry McQade, Jean Viljoen and others have found the 39 items of debris, which have been confirmed or are likely to have come from MH370.”
Commenting on Jeff Wise’s Kazakhstan theory Mr Godfrey said: “That these items of debris were flown intact to Kazakhstan, then subsequently damaged to simulate a crash, then subsequently exposed to marine life for months and finally planted in 27 locations in 7 countries for 14 different people to find, is preposterous nonsense.”
Another Jeff Wise nonsense according to Mr Godfrey is that “it is not possible to fly the aircraft from the Main Equipment Centre (MEC). You cannot plug into the Airplane Information Management System (AIMS) computer in the MEC and fly the aircraft remotely. AIMS uses four ARINC 629 buses to transfer information. There are 2 cabinets on each plane (left and right). The ARINC 629 bus operates as a multiple-source, multiple-sink system; each terminal can transmit data to, and receive data from, every other terminal on the data bus. This makes it impossible to connect to any part of the system and take over the entire operation of the aircraft remotely.”
The list of errors in the show is almost endless and shows that the production house RAW chose to believe a couple of bizarre conspiracy theorists with books to promote and ignore clear contrary and rational comments from Mr Exner.
Famous wreck hunter David Mearns, a British-resident US marine scientist is quoted via Twitter expressing his disappointment in the Netflix series. It is “dominated by Jeff Wise and Florence de Changy, ridiculous and unsupported conspiracy theories,” he wrote.
He added “Inmarsat is real, Blaine Gibson is real, and the plane is in the southern Indian Ocean. Resume the underwater search.”
David Mearns is one the world’s leading shipwreck hunters and has found HMS Hood, RMS Bismark, HMAS Sydney and the German raider Kormoran and was part of the team that found the world’s largest battleship the Japanese Musashi.
There is now so much misinformation and untruth surrounding what happened to MH370 that when solid evidence – in the form of debris and satellite data – is presented it is barely recognizable.
Netflix dereliction of its duty as a broadcaster is deeply disturbing. It has clearly opted for sensational conspiracy over plain simple facts. Incredibly its series director Louise Malkinson has even admitted that “it’s (MH370) most likely that the plane is in the Southern Indian Ocean.”
Soon people will ask – is that true or did you see it on Netflix!
