Malaysian airliner flight MH 370 has now been missing for a week, and although in a friend's opinion this is now a non-story (that is, it isn't really news to say: "missing plane still missing") the fact remains that this is an unprecedented event in modern times.
One of the most intriguing parts of the story to my eyes is the way we have been drip-fed information over the seven days, only for that information to be discredited within a few days, or sometimes hours, then sometimes to be recredited- all very odd. First the engines were giving out data they were still working hours after its transponders stopped transmitting. Then they weren't. Then they were again. What the hell is going on?
Then we have the gradually increasing area of search, going from a few hundred, to a few thousand, and now to a few million square miles. As I understand it (and I don't) the plane has been lost in an area as large as, or possibly even larger than, the United States, that is more than 3 million square miles. Which makes the task so gargantuan as to be virtually impossible. The conspiracy nuts are going on about alien abduction, which right now is beginning to look as good an explanation as any (and I never thought I'd hear myself saying that), though now my money is on some deliberate human intervention: who knows? Maybe it's sitting in a hangar in North Korea. Maybe the Malaysian authorities know more than they're letting on. Maybe it has crashed in some incredibly remote location. Maybe not...
We just haven't got a clue. And that's what makes it news. Of a rather strange brand I grant you, but still news.
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I think they'll find it near the missing headline "I" ;-)
please steve, get rid of this captcha code moderation - it will stop most people you know...
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