MH370: One month later, lessons learnt

Search and rescue (SAR) operations intensifies as time is ticks on before the black box stops emitting it’s signal.

Recent findings by the extensive SAR operations team which pulled military assets from over 20 countries, have detected a pulse signal in the southern Indian Ocean that is consistent with a black box beacon.

But could this possibly be our missing flight? A month into the operations we have heard many conspiracy theories, we see how the media portrayed the incidents surrounding the disappearance, and we have a rough estimation of military cost involved in the search of the mysterious disappearing plane.

To this day, other than the fact that the flight took off from Kuala Lumpur and never reached its Beijing destination, there has not been any conclusive evidence that the plane crashed in the Indian Ocean. Exactly what happened after- and why- remains a mystery.

It was shot down by China, it is at a holding airport in Diego Garcia, it caught fire lost pressure and crashed into the sea – these are just some of the theories penetrating the minds of critical thinking people.

The disappearance of MH370 is not the first plane crash incident where conspiracy theories are considered. In 1996 a Trans World Airlines (TWA) Flight 800 crashed off the coast of East Moriches, Long Island while en route to France, killing 200 people.

After a four-year investigation, the official verdict found the plane crash was caused by an explosion due to a spark from a damaged wire.

However, in 2013 a documentary argued the plane was shot down and the “truth” was that this was a cover up by the US government or by the air industry, which might have had to face massive financial losses.

Aeroline Itavia Flight 870- a domestic Italian flight was en route from Bologna to Palermo when it crashed into the Tyrrhenian Sea killing everybody on board in 1980- also had its share of conspiracy theories surrounding its crash.

The official verdict was that it was shot down by a missile fired by the French Navy aircraft, but theories include: a terrorist attack, a Nato training exercise gone wrong, and the plane was shot down by a missile in a strike against Libyan forces.

Interestingly, in the months after the crash, seven Italian air officials involved in the investigation died in suspicious circumstances such as car crashes, murders and suicides.

The mind searches for answers when there are none. An article by The Hindu compares the 1950 Akira Kurosawa film Rashomon- a film that depicts how a rape and murder is interpreted in different ways by three different observers- to the the disbelief surrounding MH370.

The article suggest that the Rashomon effect is the “onslaught of the most improbable theories that has numbed the senses of the public so much that they seem to have stopped taking in information, credible or not.”

In the last 30 days, the public at large is rubbishing media reports as not credible, so the question is- what is the truth?

Since the disappearance of the plane, we have been glued to our televisions for important updates regarding this flight.

International networks such as Cable News Network (CNN) since day one has provided extensive coverage on the matter, feeding the need of information to the public around the world.

Unfortunately, many of their reports were inaccurate and unethical, sparking protests against the network by non-government organisations (NGO) and the general public.

There was the incident where CNN reporting the crash said Kuala Lumpur was in Indonesia.

And as if it could not get any worse, CNN host Don Lemon asked panel of guests whether it is “preposterous” to suppose that MH370 fell into a black hole, among other wild possibilities.

The Daily Mail, a British tabloid, reported that Captain Zaharie Ahmad was “disturbed” according his family members, and that he was a fanatical supporter of opposition leader, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

With all eyes of the world on the investigation of the disappearing MH370, the need for information is at a all time high with networks and publications going the extra mile to attract viewers.

Meanwhile, a Pew Research Center survey found that a majority of respondents said coverage of the missing aircraft by the news media was adequate.

The SAR for MH370 is one of the most expensive in aviation history, according to a report released to Fairfax Media.

Snippets of costings revealed provide only a small snapshot into the cost of this extensive search- bringing together 26 countries and their military assets.

The two year search for Air France Flight 447 cost a whopping US$50 million (RM163 million).

The MAS search on the other hand which involves the cost of the ships, satellites, planes and submarines involved deployed first in the South China Sea and Malacca Straits, and later in the remote southern Indian Ocean, has surpassed the cost of the Air France 447 SAR cost.

HMAS Success, the Australian navy replenishment vessel, costs about RM1.67 million a day to operate, said a defence spokesperson.

HMAS Toowoomba which joined the hunt about a week ago has direct costs- fuel, supplies, wages of the crew- of RM1.16 million a day.

That is already a cost of RM30.4 million while in the Indian Ocean.

The United States Navy allocated US$3.6 million (RM11.8 million) for the deployment of a pinger locator and underwater drone that will search for the plane’s black box recorder.

Petagon said last week it had spent US$3.3 million (RM10.8 million) on its operation to locate MH370. Vietnam was reported to have spent more than US$8 million (RM26.1 million) searching for the plane in the South China Sea.

Air crash investigation expert from Central Queensland University, Geoff Dell said that the cost of flying daily 10-hour sorties would amount to US$1 million (RM3.2 million) a day.

Taking the known costs and estimates of the SAR, it amounts to around US$53 million (RM173.2 million). However, this is only a small fraction of the expenditure given by 26 nations involved in the search.

This coupled with the cost of intelligence analysts, police, crash investigators from from Britain, US, France and Malaysia, among others, the cost can easily surpass the figure quoted above.

One month into the most expensive SAR our generation has seen, and without any concrete evidence to suggest where the airline disappeared, many people around the world are skeptical on whether we will ever unlock the mystery of flight MH370. Only time will tell.