The airplane that vanished
The mystery deepened surrounding the Malaysia Airlines flight that disappeared one hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur.
The mystery deepened this week surrounding the Malaysia Airlines flight that disappeared without a distress call last week, one hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur. Flight 370 last made radar contact with air traffic controllers from 35,000 feet over the Gulf of Thailand. As The Week went to press, a Chinese defense agency said that Chinese satellite images taken a day later might show three large pieces of floating debris near its last known location, which could allow investigators to narrow the 27,000-square--nautical-mile search area. But no wreckage had been found four days after the plane vanished, intensifying the grief for families of the 239 people aboard.
Malaysian authorities said they were considering many possible theories, including mechanical failure, pilot error, terrorism, and pilot suicide. Questions arose about whether the Boeing 777 had been inspected for fuselage cracks, a model-specific problem that the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration warned last year “could lead to rapid decompression and loss of structural integrity.”
The sudden disappearance of an aircraft is not unprecedented, said Jordan Golson in Wired.com. Commercial airliners are not in constant contact with air traffic control, and radio communications generally occur only at fixed “reporting points.” Pilots are trained to “aviate first” and communicate last, so a catastrophic event may have precluded a distress call. And while the cause remains unknown, most experts believe the incident occurred at high altitude, scattering debris over a vast area. Wreckage from the 2009 Atlantic Ocean crash of Air France Flight 447 wasn’t found for five days, and the plane’s “black box” data recorder wasn’t recovered for two years.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
So “why isn’t black box data transmitted in real time?” asked The New York Times in an editorial. The typically bright orange devices store vital data such as telemetry and cockpit communications. The technology exists for that data to be streamed as it is collected, rather than stored “in a physical object that stays onboard.” To date, the rarity of in-flight disasters and the cost of new equipment have kept most carriers from upgrading. “But there is a cost of doing nothing,” such as trying to find a tiny box in a vast ocean.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
How the Nobel Peace Prize is chosen
The Explainer This year's prize has gone to survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Quiz of The Week: 5 - 11 October
Have you been paying attention to The Week's news?
By The Week Staff Published
-
'Picking up the pieces'
Today's Newspapers A roundup of the headlines from the US front pages
By The Week Staff Published
-
The final fate of Flight 370
feature Malaysian officials announced that radar data had proven that the missing Flight 370 “ended in the southern Indian Ocean.”
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
A drug kingpin’s capture
feature The world’s most wanted drug lord, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, was captured by Mexican marines in the resort town of Mazatlán.
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
A mixed verdict in Florida
feature The trial of Michael Dunn, a white Floridian who fatally shot an unarmed black teen, came to a contentious end.
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
New Christie allegation
feature Did a top aide to the New Jersey governor tie Hurricane Sandy relief funds to the approval of a development proposal in the city of Hoboken?
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
A deal is struck with Iran
feature The U.S. and five world powers finalized a temporary agreement to halt Iran’s nuclear program.
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
End-of-year quiz
feature Here are 40 questions to test your knowledge of the year’s events.
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Note to readers
feature Welcome to a special year-end issue of The Week.
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
The U.S. and Iran strike a deal
feature The administration defended an international deal with Iran over its nuclear program, as critics at home and in Israel blasted the pact as an act of appeasement.
By The Week Staff Last updated