article_snippet: Did the plane land clandestinely on solid ground?
article_snippet: The pilots were supposed to check in with new air traffic controllers in Vietnam, but never did.
article_snippet: One theory is that one pilot may have incapacitated the other, then guided the plane to the plane end, taking the passengers down with one pilot in a dramatic suicide.
article_snippet: one pilot believed shortly after the crash that there may have been a struggle.
article_snippet: It was one of the pilots that maybe had a meltdown or did something nefarious to the airplane," one pilot said.
article_snippet: a plane went north, not south.
article_snippet: If a plane had crashed in the way that we think a plane did, which is to run out of fuel and hit the water and break up into pieces, there would be pieces somewhere," private pilot Jeff Wise said.
article_snippet: In a less sinister but equally lethal explanation, some experts theorized a plane mysteriously crashed somewhere because of mechanical malfunction.
article_snippet: Perhaps the electronics died, or a fire broke out, preventing the pilots from communicating.
article_snippet: Maybe the pilots turned to look for a landing strip but couldn't steer a plane properly.
article_snippet: Pilots had trouble embracing the thought.