It’s the tenth anniversary of the disappearance of Flight MH370
Ten years. We know more than we did then, but the basic mystery remains.
To refresh your memory, if it needs refreshing:
MH370 set off from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia for China’s capital city on March 8, 2014. Thirty-nine minutes after taking off, the aircraft vanished from air traffic control radar displays.
The pilot sent a normal sounding radio call as the plane left Malaysian airspace, but he never checked in with Vietnamese air traffic controllers upon entering that country’s airspace as he should have done.
About two minutes after the last radio correspondence, MH370’s transponder — a standard piece of equipment on all commercial aircraft that routinely relays a plane’s position to air traffic control authorities — turned off, making the jet invisible to civilian radar systems.
Military radar and satellites showed that MH370 then turned around to travel over the Andaman Sea back toward Malaysia, flying for hours before it vanished, possibly when it ran out of fuel.
Malaysia’s prime minister said 17 days after the plane disappeared that, based on the satellite data, his government had concluded that the plane crashed down in a remote corner of the Indian Ocean, and that there were no survivors.
There were 239 souls on board, mostly Chinese nationals. Remains of the plane have washed up over the years but no remains of people. The leading theory – to which I subscribe – is that this was purposeful sabotage by the pilot.
A new search is being contemplated:
Texas-based marine robotics company Ocean Infinity, which tried previously to find the plane, has proposed launching a new search, and Malaysia’s transport ministry said it would consider the proposal.
The families and friends of the passengers have suffered a great deal, not just from the loss of their loved ones but from the long period of uncertainty. It is a terrible situation. The announcement of a possible new search was welcomed by the group:
“I’m on top of the world,” said Jacquita Gomes, whose flight attendant husband was on the plane. She said she is thankful that she may now have a chance for full closure and say a final goodbye.
“We have been on a roller coaster for the last 10 years. … If it is not found, I hope that it will continue with another search,” she said.
Family members of passengers from Malaysia, Australia, China and India paid tribute to their loved ones during the event, lighting a candle on stage to remember them.“
No matter if it is 10 years, 20 years or more, as long as we are still alive…we will not cease to press for the truth. We believe the truth will eventually come to light,” said Bai Zhong, from China, whose wife was on the plane.
I hope they find out more.
NOTE: This article explores some of the theories about the plane’s disappearance.
I recently saw somewhere that it had been 15 years since there was a multiple fatality commercial plane crash in the US.
That really is extraordinary.
I just can’t shake the feeling that aliens had something to do with the passengers’ disappearance.
The Unicorn Polyhedron!
Wish them luck
Still haven’t found Amelia Earhart
Malaysia is a very corrupt country, back under Malathir, who didn’t mind trafficking in the Worst antiSemitism, to promote the Malay over Chinese, and before under Najib, it was in support of the latter, that he supported what was called the grapevine which entailed the defamation of the leading dissident figure Anwar Ibrahim, which entailed not a few center right journalists and opinion writers, (I will be merciful and not cite them) Najib was involved with IMDB a notorious corrupt institution that underwrote among other enterprises ‘the Wolf of Wall Street’ they had strong ties to the Saudis and the Chinese among others so transparency in the investigation was highly unlikely to be charitable,
” A long period of uncertainty”? What is wrong with the families of the dead passengers? All aboard died a long time ago.
Cicero:
What do you mean what is wrong with the families?
(a) they lost their loved ones in a plane crash
(b) they don’t know why the plane crashed
(c) their loved ones may have been murdered by the pilot, but they don’t know
(d) no bodies have ever been found and probably never will be found
At the very least, they would like some answers. So would I. So would most people. But for families and friends of the dead, the grief and uncertainty is huge.
to say the Malaysian govt is unresponsive is too charitable,
one is reminded of another doomed flight Egypt Air, I forget the flight number it crashed about two years before 9-11, pilot was likely suicidal as well, that was a taboo thing back then, to suggest, now not so much
miguel cervantes:
Yes, especially after the Germanwings crash at the hands of the pilot.
yes that was another one, no if it sank into the deep ocean, it may be very hard to recover,
Yes why do families of those killed ….. grieve after so many years? They got on that plane and essentially vanished, happens all the time, get over it. (sarc x 11)
Maybe because they are human and have souls?
Nope, you would need a philosopher to understand those questions.
I remember reading an article that pieces of the plane’s fuselage had washed up in Madagascar. There were said to be unique part numbers / serial numbers that supposedly confirmed this.
Of course that doesn’t pinpoint its location, but the guy that went searching in Madagascar had projected his hypothesis on the crash site and concluded that the wind and currents would be likely to deposit them where he went looking.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37820122
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36498547
Well, boo-hoo. People die every day. The relatives of the dead aboard that plane have had ten-TEN-years to grieve. At some point one has to get over grieving, as do parents of killed children, whether by accident or disease, and get on with life and the living. Cessation of grieving does not mean forgetting the dead. Grieving is an energy-consuming business. As a now retired oncologist, I knew and know death and grieving all too well.
I’d have sworn that was less than 10 years ago if you’d asked me. It seems so recent in memory.
Cicero:
You may indeed know illness and death, but it is fairly apparent that you don’t know grieving, except the kind of which you approve.
Nor is this situation analogous to death from cancer, terrible though that is.
Cicero, I would not like to have you as a Doc. Uncaring, no feelings.
What is it about some doctors that they know all there is about humanity except the practice of humility?
They haven’t located the main part of the wreck or any personal effects, but they do know within so and so many hundred miles where the plane hit the drink. I suppose that element of uncertainty may regulate how people grieve.
==
They’ve concluded that pilot suicide is the explanation that best fits the data they have. I cannot imagine the mentality of a man who wishes to end it all, to take 240 strangers with him, and do so with premeditation and careful planning. There have in the last 25 years been two other cases of airline pilot suicide with mass casualties, but they involved much less in the way of deliberation.
I was illustrating why the families would have a hard time in malathirs fiefdom
They would want accountability but it is in short supply
Cicero. I understand your comment and it sounded much more cynical than I know you to be. I personally feel the same way. There of course is no sense of finality until the survivors KNOW for certain. But, they must of course move on building good lives. That is my complaint with the “Sandy Hook” crowd–it does not seem as if they are trying to build a good life.
om: I warrant you are not a physician, and that your knowledge of caring, careful medical practice is sparse. Being the tip of the medical spear, humility is always essential; the fear of making the wrong (harmful, injurious) decision.
Neo: we have disagreed on medical issues in the past. On how to deal with the transmission risk of Ebola, as I recall.
Yours is a lack of the humility om wrongly finds me deficient of. Your blog is a discussion venue, not Judge Engoron’s courtroom.
Long, long ago I resigned my tenured position of chief of radiation oncology at Duke, because Duke was hiring clinicians from Harvard and Yale, Yankees who cared more about power, money and grants than patient care or student teaching. That is what Massachusetts still generates, a lust for socialized medicine. I chose not to swim with those fishes and resigned.
Interesting how some “know” how others should deal with the loss of family, children, spouses in an unusual tragedy that appears to have been mass murder. I don’t know what is in Cicero’s heart or his health issues, IIRC he is dealing with cancer.
Cicero:
I am not a physician.
Own it. Words are like bullets. Humility and empathy.
Damnation, I needed a physician to educate me that people die every day. Another word “tact.”
And those damned Yankees?
Let it go, Om.
Flitting from comment to comment, constantly policing what others say with your little stock of formulaic sarcasms, has to be as unrewarding for you as it is for others
If you want to make some argument asserting that those who declare themselves soulless actually have souls, or how you propose to convince them of that, and why it is important to anyone that they should be so convinced, then make it
The issue obviously has you worked up enough to import it from other comment threads.
If you have an argument to make, make it.
Explain how you know, and why they should know, and why anyone not them should care. Or take some other line of argument to proof.
But your constant displays of bug-up-your-ass petulance toward other commenters, aren’t doing anyone any good. You, least of all.
its a small thing in the big scheme, after all there has been no accountability for 10-11 million dead from a biological accident gone awry
Good point, miguel.
i guess one could think of it, like the modern flying dutchman, in one of the mission impossible films, they make the act the work of the syndicate, a league of former spies and operators, to target one man, who they considered a fulcrum point, in another series, blindspot, it was the work of another group, which had hid it in the black sea (admittedly that was a jump of inplausibility)
The philosopher has a problem, stuck on the souls of others. Not that they or he could be mistaken? Perish the thought, or write another tome.
Bothered? Nope, just noticing a persistent style of discourse. You be you.
One more thing regarding Cicero’s comments and various reactions to them: there is no evidence that indicates the families’ continuing grief has made them dysfunctional in any way. In fact, none of the family members’ quotes indicate anything other than continuing grief about their losses and a deep desire to solve the mystery. One can have these completely understandable feelings and yet be carrying on one’s life in relatively normal fashion at this point. I don’t know why Cicero or anyone else would leap to the assumption that the family members are disabled by grief at this point and functioning so poorly. That was the thrust of his criticism. And “boo hoo” shows a lack of compassion.
However, it’s certainly possible that as a doctor he was compassionate. What people say online and how they act in life doesn’t always match.
To recap, Neo wrote and I quote:
What do you mean what is wrong with the families?
(a) they lost their loved ones in a plane crash
(b) they don’t know why the plane crashed
(c) their loved ones may have been murdered by the pilot, but they don’t know
(d) no bodies have ever been found and probably never will be found
At the very least, they would like some answers. So would I.
*************************
(a) is a fact; (b) and (c) are not answerable. (d) is patently obvious for impact deaths of the passengers buckled into their seats which now rest at ca. 20,000 ft. depth.
So there is no rational basis, it seems to me, for seeking answers for (b) to (d). I am not making light of grieving, but the lives of the living continue. Seeking to know the unknowable is futile.
And not long after this plane disappeared, another Malaysian Airlines aircraft full of passengers was shot down by Russian-backed Ukrainian “separatists”. It was a one-two punch for the airline at the time.
Cicero:
I never said they expected to find bodies. I brought up the lack of bodies, and the lack of evidence of what happened to the plane, to explain their continuing need to find at least some sort of evidence. I think almost anyone would feel the same.
Finding some pieces of the plane washing up on land has helped somewhat, I think, but there’s no reason to not seek more answers. It might be possible to find the actual wreckage unless it’s completely broken up and there’s no such site at all. We don’t yet know.
My point is that it’s understandable – and even rational – to want to know more. Even people (perhaps most people) who are not relatives want to know.
Also, there is no evidence that the families and friends are dysfunctional in their grieving. Grief often lasts in some form or other for a lifetime and is not necessarily disabling.
And I believe it was especially your “boo hoo” comment that disturbed people here and made it seem as though you not only lack compassion but are mocking the families’ grief. I doubt you really meant to do that but it certainly gave that appearance.
Grief is not a doorway, it’s a corridor; for some that hallway is longer.
Doctors are good at compartmentalizing. They have to be.
Is it possible the black box could be recovered and provide some answers?
I found it odd that the passenger Paul Weeks, a mechanical engineer from Australia, gave his wedding ring and watch to his wife to give to his sons if anything happened to him. He was just going off on a job…
I read a novel once where an entire plane was taken down just to get one person who was on board but making it seem accidental.
Regarding the lack of physical remains in the case of MH 370, I wonder if it’s analogous to the experiences of the survivors of those killed on 9/11.
Phillip Sells:
Not having any remains of 9/11 victims is hard for the families and friends who face that particular situation (many do have remains, but many don’t and probably never will). But I don’t see much analogy to MH370, because with 9/11 at least we know exactly what happened on 9/11, why, and where, and there is now a memorial at that spot.
DisGuested:
The black box has long since stopped emitting signals, but I assume that, if found and if intact (two enormous “ifs”) it’s within the realm of possibility that some information could be retrieved from it.
Neo: Thanks for the link. Interesting, seems they should’ve been able to get a ping from it given the details relayed in the article.
From the Netflix trailer description:”At 2:22 AM Malaysian military radar lost contact with the plane over the Andaman Sea. An Inmarsat satellite in geostationary orbit over the Indian Ocean received hourly signals from flight 370 and detected the plane for the final time at 8:11 AM.” Where was it at 8:11AM? Had it been flying all that time? Guess I will have to watch the documentary.
I’ve had two views of “closure” for a long time. Finally decided that if somebody feels a need for closure, then he feels a need for closure. Not slinging new-age psychdom around. Not my call.
There’s an issue with closure, in terms of knowing what happened. Back in the day, Notifying Next of Kin, I had to park about a minute’s walk away from the home I was about to destroy. By the time I got there, I was followed by maybe a dozen neighbors, with more coming.
One said one of the inevitables; Shakily trying to light a cigarette, “Hell of a job they gave you.”
And then the other. “Was it…quick?”
In SEA, the likelihood of hanging on the wire for three days, praying for something to come along and kill you was pretty small. So not like WW I, then.
But I was not in a position to know.
Doing Survivor Assistance for another family, kept up with them for one thing or another. About fifteen years later, I found there was to be a monument to the Vietnam dead of the county the following Memorial Day. Tracked the family down and we met for the occasion.
Found Mom was gone….on to other subjects.
Couple of years ago, I found Mom had killed herself five years after I knocked on their door.
I tracked down my guy’s alumni club and asked for the circumstances. Heavy round to the head, they assured me. Of course they would. Because that would be “quick” and they felt they owed it to me and through me to the family.
In reality, he had died “in surgery”, which in some fashion had been made known to the family.
WRT the current issue…yeah it’s quick if you hit the water at four hundred miles an hour after thirty seconds of screaming fear in an uncontrolled dive. That would be, relatively speaking, a relief for the families.
But is that what REALLY happened, some of them may be asking themselves. What if some physics-denying landing on the water with two hours of watching the water creeping up inside the passenger compartment.
(OCD freaks butt right the eff out. Point is not what you think can happen but what somebody’s loved one might be imagining in long hours of wondering.)
You never argue with the bereaved family. My father had a high school friend killed very late in the Pacific War. The mother said if we’d only had the bomb sooner, Arthur would be with us today. Given the relative dates, it was practically a mathematical certainty. Poor woman was so distraught, she thought it was the Jews who delayed the use of the bomb.
No point in arguing with the mother. She’s entitled. Nobody else has to believe that, but you just make soothing words and move on to how active he was on the track team his senior year.
Richard Aubrey,
Wow! That is really tough work. I can’t imagine. You are a strong man to take those assignments on!
Regarding the passengers on the flight, I thought I read somewhere that there is a good chance the pilot turned off the oxygen to the cabin long before descent and they all nodded off to a sleep they never woke up from. Isn’t that the theory of why there was likely no struggle with the copilot? He told the copilot to take a bathroom/leg stretch break then turned off the oxygen to the main cabin?
The Western Front Association YouTube videos have lead in songs for the segments, usually historian lectures. One song is “Hanging on the old barbed wire”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanging_on_the_Old_Barbed_Wire
Not knowing where he (they) are or what happened to them takes a toll (understatement x 11).
Rufus.
Thanks. But I came around on the roster like the other guys.
Point is, if the man is dead, there’s still a matter of horror, or at least some consolation when there’s nothing else.
One reason for the families to want to know, against who knows what imaginings