Almost three months after the massive search for Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 began, the unmanned US deepwater submarine that has been looking for the wreckage is today leaving the Pacific search area, having failed to find any trace of the plane. The fate of the 239 passengers and crew who left Kuala Lumpur on March 8 for the “red-eye” overnight flight to Beijing is still no nearer being known despite the largest international search operation ever mounted. However, the quest for flight MH370 is not over. Australia, which is coordinating the search in the deep waters of the Pacific far off its west coast, will now be using commercial firms with unmanned submarines capable of operating at an extreme depth. Who will be picking up the tab for what promises to be an extremely expensive contract is not clear. Certainly, for the Chinese, whose relatives and friends made up the majority of MH370's passenger list, no amount will be too much if it can bring them the answer to the fate of their loved ones and offer them some sort of closure. The Malaysian government last week gave bereaved relatives the raw data from flight transponders used by analysts to determine the route of the airliner. The 47-page document, which included explanations of what the data meant, was not handed to the media until the relatives had had time to study the documents themselves. This was an act of sensitivity by the Malaysian authorities designed to meet demands that there be greater transparency about everything that happened in the search for MH370. It may be that other analysts will reach different interpretations of the transmissions from an engine which became the sole link to the plane once the two main transponders had ceased to function. Frivolous interventions by attention-seeking individuals will be inevitable and will be disturbing for relatives. It can be expected that the theory that MH370 did not crash into the sea but was landed at some remote airfield will once again gain traction. A key piece of support evidence for this claim is the fact that despite the most intensive air and sea search of a vast area in which it was assumed airliner came down, not a single piece of wreckage was found. However, this could just as easily be explained by the possibility that the searchers were looking in the wrong piece of ocean. Therefore, the raw data from which the search managers worked acquires even greater significance. Over and above the horror of the loss of so many lives in such still inexplicable circumstances, there is a deeper concern which appears to have been little voiced. Millions of people are regular air travelers. Though mile-for-mile flying is the safest means of transport, we all of us know that when we board a plane, there is that minute chance of mishap. Yet we place our confidence in the competence of the flight crew, the engineers and the air traffic controllers on the ground, together with the advanced computer and navigational support systems that guide aircraft safely to their destinations. And yet Flight MH370 was able to disappear, quite literally, into thin air. Until it is known precisely why and how this happened, some passengers will feel an understandable niggle of extra apprehension each time they take a flight.
