On the morning of March 8, 2014, Malaysian Airline’s Flight 370 departed from Kuala Lumpur, scheduled to arrive in Beijing. Three weeks later, however, the flight carrying 239 people is still nowhere to be found, and searchers are at a loss for an explanation. For the past few weeks, the world has engaged in a frantic search for the missing plane, and the lack of conclusive information has been frustrating and discouraging. The news reports have changed daily, or multiple times daily, as searchers attempt to locate some sort of evidence as to where the plane might be and uncover details about what might have happened. Puzzling is the fact that all transponders on the plane, regularly used to track flights, were completely turned off, as well as the fact that the last tracked location of the plane was hundreds of miles away from its intended route. The search area has covered thousands of miles and many are becoming despondent that any type of conclusive information will ever be found. False leads, erroneous reports, and bad weather conditions have continued to frustrate search efforts.
On the morning of March 8, 2014, Malaysian Airline’s Flight 370 departed from Kuala Lumpur, scheduled to arrive in Beijing. Three weeks later, however, the flight carrying 239 people is still nowhere to be found, and searchers are at a loss for an explanation. For the past few weeks, the world has engaged in a frantic search for the missing plane, and the lack of conclusive information has been frustrating and discouraging. The news reports have changed daily, or multiple times daily, as searchers attempt to locate some sort of evidence as to where the plane might be and uncover details about what might have happened. Puzzling is the fact that all transponders on the plane, regularly used to track flights, were completely turned off, as well as the fact that the last tracked location of the plane was hundreds of miles away from its intended route. The search area has covered thousands of miles and many are becoming despondent that any type of conclusive information will ever be found. False leads, erroneous reports, and bad weather conditions have continued to frustrate search efforts.Because of the flight’s sudden and seemingly inexplicable disappearance, various extreme theories as to the whereabouts of the plane have been proposed, ranging from the plane’s abduction by UFO’s to its disappearance into a black hole. Others suggested that a malfunction caused the plane to completely disintegrate while in the air. Shaindy Ort, a sophomore, commented on the plethora of proposed explanations, saying that she thinks “it’s frightening that something that we imagine to be so heavily monitored can just disappear. But I also think that the truth is nobody knows what happened and ridiculous speculations that border on conspiracy theories are only harmful.” In the most recent development, the Prime Minister of Malaysia made a public statement that the last known location of the flight, somewhere over the middle of the Indian Ocean, indicates that the plane had too little fuel to have reached any possible landing sites; therefore, he said, the conclusion has been made that the plane has crashed into the Indian Ocean.
Since that time, Australia and China have raised the possibilities of having discovered floating wreckage, but the findings have yet to be confirmed. Even if searchers do discover debris, major mysteries still remain: why did the plane divert hundreds of miles off of its established flight course? Was this a result of terrorism, foul play of the crew members, or a freak accident? Or something else entirely? Irit Greenboim, a senior, feels that there is tremendous difficulty in dealing with the lack of explanations. “A big part of this tragedy is the feeling that so much is unknown,” she stated.
Meanwhile, relatives and friends of those on board the flight have grown angry with the Malaysian government for their inconclusive search efforts, and are distraught over their missing loved ones. One student at Stern, a sophomore, says those close to the passengers on the plane have been most on her mind. “The families of these people, that’s what I’ve been thinking about,” she says. “How can you lose a plane? It just doesn’t make sense to me. Where did it go? Their hearts must be broken, living in question like that.” Elana Kook, a junior, has been thinking along similar lines. “Not only do I think this is a tragedy for the victims,” she stated, “but my heart also goes out to the families of the victims who must feel overwhelmed with confusion and grief. The impact of such an event will be long lasting, and the mystery will hopefully continue to unravel.”
The disappearance of the Malaysian plane has thrown the world for a loop, and challenges the 21st century heavy reliance on technology to provide all answers. In an age with the most advanced tracking systems, even the most developed recovery technologies have not been able to offer information on the whereabouts of the plane. Penina Cohen, a senior, grapples with how these events could transpire in such a hi-tech era, saying that she “finds it shocking that with all of the technology in the world that a plane could go missing like that.” Similarly, junior Shira Huberfeld is troubled by the mystery. “In the age of constant cell phone communication and GPS tracking, it’s rare not to know where some one is,” she stated. “The idea that an entire plane can disappear without a trace demonstrates that despite our modern technology, there can still be events that render us helpless.”
The mystery and speculation surrounding the missing plane seems to have somewhat clouded the tragic nature of this event but it cannot be forgotten that the families of the 239 people aboard Flight 370 are grieving the loss of mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, and children. The only thing now is to continue looking for answers and hope that there will be new discoveries to shed light on the tragic events of Flight 370.