One Year from the Disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370: No News

MH370 was an international passenger flight that disappeared on March 8 2014. The plane was flying from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (Malaysia) to Beijing Capital International Airport (China). Right now, three countries are involved in the searching process of the aircraft: Malaysia, China and Australia.

On March 8 last year the plane lost transmission in a couple of hours after the takeoff. According to satellite and radar analysis the plane headed south but only for several hours, until the fuel ran out. 26 nations paid for the most expensive investigation in aviation history, but not a single trace of debris was found.

The Malaysian government is still searching for the plane that carried 239 people on board. On Sunday family members and relatives of the passengers will gather to commemorate their loved ones. A public event was organized by a support group for the relatives of those on board MH370. Music, prayers and personal tributes may be involved. It is expected that the Malaysian authorities will give an interim report on the investigation.

The report was requested by the U.N.’s International Civil Aviation Organization. It will be released to the public on Sunday, after having been presented to the Malaysian government officials on Saturday. The report will not include any progresses regarding the search. It will most likely give details about the search process and list the facts that led the investigators to perform the current search in the Indian Ocean.

Najib Razak, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, said that the pain of those who are still waiting for their loved ones to return cannot be put into words. The situation is even more delicate since there is no clear evidence, such as aircraft wreckage, to explain the ineffectiveness of the authorities. Najib added that together with the partner countries they are following the little evidence that they have and have not given up the search.

Data investigators of satellite and radar suggest that the aircraft (Boeing 777) went down in the Indian Ocean, about 1,000 miles off the west coast of Australia. Right now, a group of ships are looking for the remains of the passenger jet. They are using specialized equipment to investigate the depths of a distant area of ocean. The four ships use sonar-emitting submersibles to turn the floor of the ocean upside down in search for the plane.

The lack of answers and palpable evidence has been tormenting the families of those who were on board of MH370 and has also resulted into the emergence of some speculative theories. The captain of the aircraft, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, was blamed for its disappearance of MH370. He was called a “rogue pilot”. His sister defended him, claiming that he had been a loyal employee of the Malaysia Airlines for many years and moreover an aviation enthusiast. She said that nobody has the right to put the blame on him.

In late January the government decided to declare the loss of the plane an accident. This enabled the process of insurance payout to begin. Many of the relatives thought it was too soon and were dissatisfied with this. Moreover, they expressed their anger regarding the incapability of the airline officials and the authorities to answer their questions after so many demands. Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, CEO of Malaysia Airlines, said that no other airline company has been through such a situation before and believes that they are doing the best they can in dealing with such a singular event. The purpose of the compensations was to help the families return to their normal life, as normal as life can be after such a great loss.

Five hundred employees of Malaysia Airlines gathered on Sunday in Kuala Lumpur to honor the 13 members of the crew who were on the plane. Mohamad Nor Yusof, chairman of Malaysia Airlines declared that their colleagues are being missed and will never be forgot.

On Saturday, Malaysia’s transport minister said that if the plane is not found by the end of May, the three nations involved in the investigation will have to review all the data and develop new plans. Although people have repeatedly been insured that the authorities are committed to the investigation, on Thursday Tony Abbott, the Prime Minister of Australia said they cannot promise that this intense and costly search will continue for much longer, at least not as intense as it is now.

The International Civil Aviation Organization described this event as “a one-in-100-million flight event for global aviation”. The loss of MH370 followed by the downing of MH17 in Ukraine put the organization on guard. In order to improve plane monitoring, the organization proposed a new global standard. Starting 2016 all airlines will be required to report the in-flight position every 15 minutes, not every 30 minutes as most airlines have been doing so far. Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia have already started a trial of 15-minutes tracking.

Image Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

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Christina Langfold

Remember that weird girl in school who never quite managed to fit in? Who was always silent and strange? That was me during my entire teenage life. A few years after finishing college (with a degree in arts) I decided that the best way to become more sociable, while also feeling safe, is to test my people skills online.