Today marks the second anniversary of the disappearance of Malaysian Plane MH370 with 239 passengers on board.
On March 8th 2014, families across 14 countries lost their loved ones. Since then, no family has received a solid answer as to what happened that day.
There has been mass speculation as to how the plane went down, multiple conspiracy theories, false evidence, a massive international search effort and finally, a discovery. The anniversary rolls around with relatives increasingly anxious over the plans to end the challenging search for the plane which is believed to have crashed in Indian Ocean.
Most of the passengers on the plane, which was en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, were Chinese. So across China, dozens of families are still wrestling with how or if to accept that their relatives are dead. Investigators believe the MH370 crashed in a remote stretch of the southern Indian Ocean, killing everyone on board after flying far off course and running out of fuel. But they have only theories to explain exactly what happened, or why. Only one confirmed piece of plane wreckage has been found, a battered, rowboat-sized wing part that washed up on an Indian Ocean island about eight months ago.
As the clock ticks to mark the anniversary, Families of the victims have already launched legal proceedings in China and Malaysia. Many families say they do not accept authorities’ claims the aircraft crashed in the southern Indian Ocean. A small group of about eight relatives continue to protest at the airline’s Beijing office every day, according to Chinese Media Outlets
The disappearance of MH370 was without precedent, and the search has been the most challenging in aviation history. Amidst some of the world’s most inhospitable terrain – at depths of up to six kilometers, across underwater mountain ranges, and in the world’s fastest currents – the search team have been working to find MH370’s resting place.
Modern aviation may be the safest complex system ever devised. Each day, more than 100,000 flights take off and land with prosaic regularity. Accidents are so rare that, almost by definition, they mean something unprecedented has happened.
The unexplained disappearance of Malaysia Airlines MH370, two years ago, presumably killed all 239 people aboard — is by any definition unprecedented. And despite some tantalizing hints, its fate remains utterly mysterious. As such, it makes a poor basis for dramatic changes in public policy. Modern planes are so safe that adding yet more rules and requirements in response to an incomprehensible tragedy could very well make things worse.
Someone aboard MH370 evidently switched off its communications systems, taking it off the grid. But pilots may have perfectly valid reasons for turning a transponder off, such as recovering from a malfunction or preventing overheating. American regulators acknowledged as much last year when they argued that the risks of tamper-proofing cockpit equipment outweigh the benefits.
In the age of the drone, why not eliminate human pilots altogether? Even overlooking the cost and complexity involved, the rate at which military drones – to say nothing of their civilian counterparts – crash in much less demanding environments should give pause. The reality is that, despite high-profile catastrophes, pilots solve many more problems in-flight than they’ve ever caused.
Some new technology may, in fact, be helpful in preventing future disasters. The U.S. military is working on robot co-pilots. These are promising endeavors, worthy of more study and investment. Yet they, too, risk unintended consequences, including malicious hacking, conflicting lines of authority and well-intentioned mistakes.
It took decades of research, regulation and scientific advances to make airplanes as safe as they are now. Things can always be improved. But it’s important to accept that risk can never be completely eliminated from flight, and that more complexity often means more ways for things to go wrong. It may be that the safest thing to do in response to Malaysia Flight MH370 is something that almost defies human intuition: nothing at all.
