Without A Trace ......

It has been more or less 16 days since the disappearance of the Maylasian Flight MH 370, and in a world where technology rules over privacy and the means of establishing connectivity are expanding at a rate so fast, it’s impossible to keep up, it hardly seems possible that a jumbo jetliner carrying 239 people could simply disappear without a trace. Having been ill of late, I’ve had more time to devote to television than is typical. Therefore, I – like so many others – have kept my eyes glued to CNN in hopes that some shred of evidence might come across that these people might still be alive. As such I’ve heard every conceivable theory floating about from pilot suicide, to terrorism, to hijacking or some catastrophic mechanical failure, but nothing seems to tick all the boxes when it comes to a feasible explanation.

There is no logic in a pilot flying 7 ½ - 8 hours, hundreds of miles off course into the southern Indian Ocean to commit suicide. If hijacked, then who? And why? Because there’s been no claim of responsibility or no demand for ransom. Again, if one is to consider terrorism, there has been no evidence of chatter and no claim of responsibility. And is it possible that something catastrophic enough to knock out the ACARS (Aviation Communication And Response System) and the Transponder also lead to an unplanned change in flight plan, but did not elicit a “mayday” signal from the pilots but did enable the jet to fly another seven hours without intervention from anyone aboard? In an effort to make sense, nothing seems to fill the bill.

I am astounded that it takes days for a nation such as Thailand or China to release satellite images when so much is at stake, or that other countries such as India or Pakistan might even be reluctant to reveal ‘anything’ at all in terms of their capabilities or lack thereof because of unfriendly borders. I suppose I rank among the minority of those who zeroes in on the ‘human’ side of this tragedy …. that aboard that plane were 239 souls who were mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, sons and daughters of people who loved them, people who yearn to have them back and in lieu of that at least need to have ‘something’ in the form of an explanation as to ‘how could this happen?’

As countless sums of money and manpower are invested in an effort to locate debris in the Southern Indian Ocean some 1500 miles off the coast of Western Australia, every responsible party and expert in his field cautions that these items may very well only amount to shipping containers and refuse from any number of freighters who travel this same route. Putting myself in the place of a family member, I can’t help but hope that’s just what it is, because without evidence of a crash, the possibility of life still exists. I know even more experts agree that the likelihood of someone successfully commandeering a 777 jet loaded with passengers and escaping to parts as yet unknown seems highly unlikely, but the undeniable fact is we have no clear record of exactly what happened to that plane after it vanished from radar, and as unlikely as it seems, “no one” would have thought the events that unfolded during the tragedy of 911 would have been possible until it actually happened. Therefore – absent of any identifying evidence of a crash – isn’t it possible that a well-orchestrated plan to commandeer a jet, knock out it’s tracking systems, change its flight plan, fly it to an alternative airport to unload and refuel and be back in the air before it’s even been reported missing is too far-fetched? I don’t know …. but I do continue to ‘hope’ for all of those who have a vested interest.

I can’t imagine anything worse than losing someone you love, except possibly having that same person seemingly disappear from off the face of the earth. A lot is said about closure these days and that even finding wreckage would be ‘something’, but I don’t know how anyone could find closure in knowing their loved one ended up at the bottom of the Indian Ocean with no means for understanding why. Life is both transient and fluid in motion. From day-to-day it changes and we change with it according to the circumstances that affect our lives, and the only guarantee is that none of us will make it out alive.

Therefore it seems if nothing else we can all take certain lessons from such a tragedy …..namely, don’t put anything off. In a world that has established any number of ways of keeping track of time, we all seem to operate within the false illusion that there’s plenty of time to do the things we want, or to spend quality time with loved ones or even time to tell that certain someone how deeply we care about them. The only way to compound the fracture of having run out of time is by being forced to lament the things left undone or the words left unspoken. A loved one should never leave our sight without knowing just how we feel and a grudge – any grudge – should always be too heavy a load to carry around on a daily basis. In the end, short of prayer, there’s nothing any of us can do for the passengers or the families of the passengers on MH 370, but we can honor the legacy they left us by getting our own affairs in order so that should fate decide to intervene in our own lives, we will have left nothing undone.