The Mystery of the Missing Plane
As a man who does not love flying even though I know the statistics say it is very very safe. Three billion air miles and a minuscule number of deaths speaks volumes.
And yet, on the other wall, we post the disappearance of a very expensive aircraft and more than two hundred humans--not passengers--humans.
Mix in the presence on the flight of young men flying with stolen passports. Add the sudden silence of the instruments mid-flight and draw a line with radar showing a plane in the same area going off in another direction.
Rumors, assertions and recriminations. Everywhere.
Malaysian flight MH370 on its way to Beijing disappeared earlier this week. And no one seemed to have a convincing explanation. There seemed to be flaws in every hypothesis. Families whose loved ones were on the plane assembled with pain and outrage and numbness, hoping that something, anything would break loose and change the story from a mystery to something the mind could grapple with.
I have been thinking about the event and I posit a novel explanation. It is possible that the plane was taken over, not to fly it somewhere and crash it, but to land it and to use the captive passengers and the plane itself to some unknown end. Could the Uygher separatists in western China want a bargaining chip in their search for independence? Many of the passengers were Chinese nationals. Could a criminal cartel want to arrange to ransom the passengers and plane?
Whatever the explanation, I hope, for the families of those on the plane, that an answer is found soon.
And yet, on the other wall, we post the disappearance of a very expensive aircraft and more than two hundred humans--not passengers--humans.
Mix in the presence on the flight of young men flying with stolen passports. Add the sudden silence of the instruments mid-flight and draw a line with radar showing a plane in the same area going off in another direction.
Rumors, assertions and recriminations. Everywhere.
Malaysian flight MH370 on its way to Beijing disappeared earlier this week. And no one seemed to have a convincing explanation. There seemed to be flaws in every hypothesis. Families whose loved ones were on the plane assembled with pain and outrage and numbness, hoping that something, anything would break loose and change the story from a mystery to something the mind could grapple with.
I have been thinking about the event and I posit a novel explanation. It is possible that the plane was taken over, not to fly it somewhere and crash it, but to land it and to use the captive passengers and the plane itself to some unknown end. Could the Uygher separatists in western China want a bargaining chip in their search for independence? Many of the passengers were Chinese nationals. Could a criminal cartel want to arrange to ransom the passengers and plane?
Whatever the explanation, I hope, for the families of those on the plane, that an answer is found soon.
Comments