Human beings tend to love mysteries. There is something in our curious nature that is aroused by riddles and conundrums. In a world where information can be found at the touch of the button and where disputes in the pub over who scored the most goals in the 1999 season exist no more thanks to Google, the disappearance of a commercial airliner is thrilling for many.
First and foremost we cannot ignore the tragic loss of the 239 people aboard flight MH370 and the plight of their friends and families. Losing someone is one thing, not knowing their fate is wholly unimaginable.
It beggars belief that in 2014, when we live in states of hyper-surveillance, where in nipping out to the local convenience stores you can be caught on camera a dozen times, an aeroplane can simply vanish. Granted there are fewer CCTV cameras at sea, but complex systems of radar, satellites, GPS and radio communication systems do exist to track planes. Even if a plane manually turns of its electronic systems, surely radar on the ground would still be able to locate a jet in the air. That was after all the aim of tracking systems developed during the war, to spot planes that did not want to be spotted. It remains a mystery to us all for the time being, and agony upon agony is heaped on those who wait tirelessly for a slither of information about their loved ones.
When Air France Flight 447 crashed off the coast of Brazil in 2009 it took almost two years to find the black box and start to piece together the fateful events. However, bodies and wreckage were discovered within five days of the accident, allowing those affected some closure on the event from an earlier stage.
Presumably over the course of the next few days, weeks and months the story behind the mystifying events will slowly unravel itself, starting with the discovery of the fuselage and followed by that of the black box. Yet one can only imagine how such a thing can come to pass in this day and age.
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