Where is Malaysia Airlines’ missing Boeing 777?

With all the new technology making our world a smaller place it is truly difficult to understand how a Boeing 777 carrying 239 people can totally disappear.  However that is what has happened in the year 2014.

On Saturday it will be 2 weeks since the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 went missing and there is still no evidence to suggest where one earth it could be, which is deeply upsetting for the families and friends of those who boarded that flight.

The internet has run wild with theories and speculation but the truth is there is still much doubt over what is going on and what could have possibly happened.   Here is what we do know:

Timeline

Source: BBC News

The facts

We know the plane had enough fuel to last 7 hours of flying, which has lead authorities to look in the area surrounding the plane’s last location that is the size of Australia.

We also know 227 passengers boarded the plane, 7 of them children. 153 of those passengers are Chinese, 38 Malaysian and the rest are from various places across the globe.

Two passengers boarded the flight with stolen passports, although this is no longer being considered suspicious as their stories appear to be that they were seeking a new life in Europe and the passports were their gateway. Four passengers also checked in on the flight but did not arrive at the airport according to Malaysia Airlines.

Potential theories

The Malaysian government has now confirmed that they believe the plane was intentionally diverted and are pursuing this avenue.  They believe the plane has taken either a northern or southern arc from its last known point.

The BBC article Missing Malaysia plane: 10 theories examined, has outlined 10 theories of what could have happened to the plane, including landing in the Andaman Islands, Taklamakan Desert, Kazakhstan or Pakistan.  The article also looks into the possibility of a fire or malfunction.

The most suspicious aspect of the missing plane is the loss of transponders and the lack of communication from the plane which has technology in place for pilots to alert of any kind of terrorist attack.  This has lead to the pilots being investigated as well as theories circulating that it was pre-planned and some of the passengers were knowledgeable about the processes in place and managed to stop the pilots using them.

Overall, it is difficult to speculate about the location of flight MH370 and what actually has happened to it, especially that the unknown is causing huge distress for the friends and families of the passengers on board.  In particular, the families of the 153 Chinese passengers have been deeply upset and frustrated with the lack of information they have received.  Therefore, the only way we will truly know what has happened is to wait for the plane to be found.

It is a small world, after all

An event as distressing and enormous as this makes you realise how humongous our world actually is and how much of it is untouched by technology and population.  We can put people into space, we can talk instantly to someone on the other side of the world and produce electricity and life-changing medicines. Yet, in 2014, it is still possible to lose 227 people and a Boeing 777 for over 11 days and literally not know where in the world it is.

We hope there will be some news soon and a happy ending for the passengers and their families and friends.  We shall bring you any more news once there are further developments.

UPDATE – December 2015: An Australian led search party is ‘confident’ of finding the wreckage within the next 6 months and they have narrowed their search down to an area believed to be around the Southern end of the Indian Ocean search zone.