Flight 370
In today’s day and age, it is rare for things to go missing. Our phones, cars, and even houses have alarms and GPS, making it nearly impossible to lose without having some way to track it. Almost every plane, train, and other vehicle have this same technology in case of a crisis. This is also rule in the case of Boeing Flight 370. However, it did go missing, and even through extensive investigations and tracking, has not been recovered or found to this day along with its 227 passengers and 12 crew (Bloomberg, para.2). It is one of the great mysteries of the 21st century.
On March 8, 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was traveling from Kuala Lumpur International Airport to Beijing Capital International Airport in China. 227 passengers of mostly Chinese descent along with 12 crew members were simply lost somewhere in the Indian Ocean after the plane went off radar off of Penang Island in northwestern Malaysia. The plane last contacted Air Traffic Control about 38 minutes after leaving Kuala Lumpur and entering Vietnamese airspace, and was never to be heard from again. All onboard presumed dead, this was the deadliest incident in Malaysia Airlines history and involving a Boeing 777 until the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 tragedy four months later. There was little official information given out following the event which outraged the family and friends of the passengers (Malaysia Airlines Flight 370). This prompted a speedy investigation of the supposed crash site which ranged from the Indian Ocean all the way to Central Asia (Gregersen, para.1). Submarines were used to investigate the remote location for the plane and passengers, but to no avail. The search was deemed the most expensive in aviation history and lasted until July of 2018.
Many theories have spread as to the cause of the disappearance ranging from hijacking scenarios to pilot suicide. However, most experts agreed on a hypoxia event being the most likely. Atmospheric hypoxia is an event during which the total atmospheric pressure decreases as the altitude increases(Hypoxia (Environmental)). Atmospheric hypoxia occurs naturally, but if a plane flies too high, the natural regulation of pressure within the cabin can be thrown off, causing oxygen deficiency and the eventual suffocation of those onboard. This eventually would cause the plane to break apart as well, the air pressure pulling the pieces apart and the passengers out. To support this theory, debris found of the coasts of Madagascar, South Africa, and Tanzania was observed and identified as belonging to Flight 370. Two pieces were from the interior cabin, alluding to the plane breaking up. However, it was not determined whether the breakup happened in the air or after impact with the water, so the theory is not proven (Gregersen, para.6).
Technical failure was mostly written off and the crash was more likely thought to be a purposeful redirection of the fight to the Indian Ocean according to the Malaysian government’s report (Bloomberg para.1). Again, the cause is unknown as either hijackers or the pilot dying or passing out could have been to blame. Because the plane was crashed into a remote part of the ocean, and no specific group took responsibility for the disappearance, the idea of hijackers is unlikely, but cannot be completely disregarded (Bloomberg, para.6). A piece of debris found off the coast of Tanzania was identified as the flap of the right wing, and upon further reflection, it was found that the plane had not descended in a controlled manner (Gregersen, para.6). The absence of a water landing and the supposed event of a crash only further supports the theory something happened to the passengers and crew of Flight 370 that was completely out of their control. An investigation by the Australian government suggested that the plan ran out of fuel before dropping as fast as 25,000 feet per minute into the Indian Ocean (Bloomberg para.7).
This tragedy affected many from different regions of the globe. Most of the passengers were Chinese, but also included Malaysians and passengers from the US, Iran, Canada, Indonesia, Australia, France, India, the Netherlands, Russia, Taiwan, and New Zealand (Missing Malaysia Plane MH370: What We Know). Seven of these were children, and of the Chinese nationals, there were nineteen prominent artists. This wide array of nationalities and ages, along with the sheer surprise of the disappearance of a Boeing 777, created a global mystery that still confuses to this day.
For many, this mystery only serves as inspiration for better tracking technologies as well as upgrades for safer and more steady flights. Environmental factors can only be dampened so much, and yet they affect flight conditions so severely. Pilots experience rigorous training and schooling in order to assure a safe flight and landing at their destination. However, natural disasters happen every day and humans cannot possibly predict nor stop them all from occurring. We are limited as far as our technology is limited, but hopefully the children affected by the loss of parents, relatives, and friends may be drawn to an engineering vocation in order to unlock the secrets of eventual progress. Possibly in the future, more advanced technology may reveal the secrets of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370’s disappearance, but as of today, it is one of the great puzzles of our time.