Almost ten days have passed since Malaysian jet ,MH370, last contacted the Malaysian air traffic control and informed about its well being.The flight started from kuala – lumpur to Beijing,with 239 people on board.Initial reports suggested that the flight might have met an accident and all people on board were feared dead.After nearly two days of exhaustive search,Malaysian authorities confirmed to media that no debris of the plane has been found and it sought help of neighboring nations in order to find the plane.China expressing concerns about the safety of its citizens on board jumped ahead and put on display its military might by pressing in service its modern aircraft and warships in search mission but still the aircraft is no where to be traced.
During the course,Malaysian authorities have suggested various angles to the disappearance of the aircraft including that the plane might have been hijacked for terrorist attacks,the pilots might have made a suicide attempt,critical failure of aircraft’s machinery resulting in a catastrophe but none has been confirmed beyond doubt till time.Today,Malaysian prime minister announced that the plane digressed from its original path deliberately and that the communication systems on the aircraft were switched off manually after the plane left the Malaysian airspace, hinting involvement of either the pilots or crew members or passengers or even the ground staff, which operated on aircraft before it left kuala- lumpur, in the plane’s disappearance.
Meanwhile this search operation has turned an unprecedented search operation involving around 26 countries and spanning almost one half of the globe.Based on the last traced location of the aircraft,two arcs have been identified along which the plane might have traveled – one stretching north from Laos to the Caspian, the other south from west of the Indonesian island of Sumatra into the southern Indian Ocean west of Australia.If the reports regarding the manual intervention in diverting the ill-fated aircraft from its charted path are true, one serious concern has arisen out of this situation – Post 9/11 various measures have been adopted by nations across the world regarding aviation safety, How on earth then , is it possible that an aircraft and that too a big Boeing 777-200ER just disappear in the air and that too in the regions of global super powers China,India,Australia etc and no one is sure what actually happened.The situation has raised serious questions on the capability and ability of these nations.At this point of time, one can only pray for the well being of those on board and their relatives.
I wonder if the last informal communication between the aircraft pilots and Malaysian air traffic control – “all right, good night” has some other significance other than a mere greeting.One can just hope that this night has a day following it else another human tragedy is going to be registered in history.