MH370 has turned from a mere flight crash to a legend. The flight which disappeared over Indian ocean on March 8th 2014 will complete its one year coming Sunday. At the time of this writing, no solid clue or evidence have been found. When we think back about this worldwide-propaganda, all everyone wants to know is "What happened?". How can a $300 million Boeing 777 ,with no crash record since its first flight in 1994, disappear with no trace? How did this happen in the first place?
As an aeronautical engineer and an ATC professional myself, I cannot fathom the reasons for this covert enigma. For the public outside aviation industry, it's just another mystery. Something to tangle with crazy conspiracy theories. Even though modern world communication have reduced great distance between people, there are plenty of places on our planet where a commercial aircraft with 239 people can disappear.
Radar technology which was operational in 1940s, are designed to cover the land area. Radar was developed for world war to track enemy aircraft. Soon the technology was commercialized for passenger aircraft. With this technology it is possible to track flights 200 miles off the land. After that, no body cares to track it.
When the Air France Flight 447 crashed in the Atlantic ocean in 2009, talks for a space based tracking was proposed, but none came into effect. Flight 447 crashed while still in its intended flight route, and still it took two years to find the black box.
Promising improvement in the technology was made with ADS-B (automatic surveillance dependent broadcast). But it is not mandatory in all the countries. Since MH370, ICAO has decided to put all commercial aircraft to track every 15 minutes. This will be in effect from December 2015.
The search still continues. It has become the aviation's most expensive search in the history. By now 40% search area has been completed. And this is underwater. Flight has many things that can float. Still the mystery remains on why nothing has been found yet. Not even a single piece.
The transponders went offline two minutes after the radio contact. How? Deliberate? Fire?
And it was headed to the vast south Indian Ocean. Pilots have the option to switch off the transponders for safety reasons. It's ironic though.
The real loss is for the families and loved ones of the 239 passengers/crew who are fated to mourn over bodiless presumed deaths. It's really sad. Our prayers are with them. Also the team searching for the ill-fated flight, they have a job like no-other- we express our gratitude. We put our faith on them, that in time we will know what happened.
Our industry is aviation and we are the safest. We learn from our mistakes, unexpected mishaps. It's not an easy job, its not a perfect system - but it is only one we got. This is what we do. We write the rules with blood.
With high hopes - Chan CK
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