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Friday, March 21, 2014

Missing MH370: Flight to oblivion

THE disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH 370 proves that despite the world’s technological advances, we are not as good as we think we are.

Two weeks after the last communication with the Boeing 777-200, there is still no confirmation that “objects’’ seen by a satellite have anything to do with what remains an aviation mystery.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott revealed on Thursday that specialist analysis showed two “possible objects’’ perhaps connected to the flight.

Earlier satellite images from a Chinese satellite thought to show floating debris in the Andaman Sea near Thailand proved inconclusive.

The possible wreckage seen by satellite in the Southern Ocean, some 2300km from Western Australia, could prove to be the missing Malaysia Airlines flight, but maybe not.

It will take men looking out of an aircraft window or a ship finding the wreckage to put the fate of its 239 passengers and crew beyond doubt. The flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing simply vanished.

“ All right, goodnight’’ were the last words heard on radio before transponders were turned off. It seemed as if the aircraft entered a void.

Was it terrorism, a hijack, a suicidal crew? What does its disappearance say about the defence systems of countries who supposedly keep a constant watch on each other for any possibility of an airborne attack?

Australia just might have detected the flight of the airliner as it passed Western Australia had the over-the-horizon Jindalee radar system been looking.

But we are told it was gazing northwards towards approaching people smugglers’ boats.

Now it seems only human eyes can prove what might be the remains of flight MH 370 and all aboard the missing airliner.

We need to reassess technology’s failings.

Herald Sun

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