mh370, page-2

Shortly after takeoff, as Malaysia 370 was flying out over the ocean, smoke began filling the cockpit, perhaps from a tire on the front landing gear that had ignited on takeoff
• The flight’s captain immediately did exactly what he had been trained to do: Find the closest airport and turn the plane toward it so he could land.
• The closest appropriate airport was called Pulau Langkawi. It had a massive 13,000-foot runway. The captain programmed the destination into the flight computer. The auto-pilot turned the plane west and put it on a course right for the runway (the same heading the plane turned to)
• The captain and co-pilot tried to find the source of the smoke and fire, but it soon filled the cockpit and overwhelmed them (a tire fire would do this). It also shorted out cockpit systems one by one, including the transponder. The pilots passed out or died.
• With no one awake to instruct the auto-pilot to land, the plane kept flying on its last programmed course… right over Pulau Langkawi and out over the Indian Ocean. Eventually, 6 or 7 hours after the incident, it ran out of fuel and crashed.