It wouldn’t surprise me if MH370 was hijacked. I can’t count the number of times I flew out of Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) since 2010. I’m not even sure of the number of passports I’ve had since then. But, for an extended period, I’d go through both arrival and departure immigration at least two times per week.
Jabatan Imigresen Malaysia’s (JIM) biometric devices didn’t work half of the time in and around 2014. Whether it was the camera, fingerprint scanner, or both, betting that either one wasn’t functional on any given day would have had better odds than betting on black or red. I’d bet the passport scanner was also down sporadically when clearance times were faster than normal.
JIM’s technology was a point of failure, but it wasn’t the only one. It employed corrupt immigration officers who would use their position of power for personal gain by selling access to enter, exit, and stay in the country.
Without a doubt, the largest customer base for corrupt JIM immigration officers was Vietnamese women. Prior to COVID, a relatively large number of Vietnamese women illegally “worked” in Malaysia. When, for example, a Vietnamese woman wasn’t confident about exiting Malaysia legally, she would pay an intermediary for a somewhat safe passage. This, typically, started with a Vietnamese woman illegally in-country contacting a Vietnamese “mama” about her intent to leave Malaysia. Then, after confirming the details with a corrupt immigration officer, the “mama” would provide the woman with the date and approximate time she can leave the country and the cost. The only details left were the immigration lane and actual timeframe. But that would come via text message around the approximate exit time.
While investigators identified two Iranian passengers that boarded the flight with stolen passports, I wonder how well all the other passengers were vetted. You’d think they would be some of the most vetted passengers ever but let’s not forget that it largely involved third world countries. Just because their passports weren’t in INTERPOL’s stolen and lost travel documents (STLD) database, shouldn’t justify their innocence.
So, yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised if the flight was hijacked. If you didn’t want to try to go through departure immigration the right way regardless of whether your travel documents were actually yours, there were enough immigration officers open to selling out their country. Even I could have used their services. Basically, you just needed to know someone who could make the arrangements. Vietnamese women were abundant.
Before jumping to anymore conclusions, corrupt Malaysian immigration officers weren’t the only possible loose end, there were also corrupt Malaysian customs officers as well who, like their counterparts, sold-out their country for money.
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