Malaysian Mystery
Flight 370, Global Humanity and the Lessons to be Learn
Mahboob A.
Khawaja
Global mankind
feels tormenting pains and anguish to search for the missing Malaysian Flight
370 and to find rational answers, so far, unknown and perhaps unavailable. A
tragedy in its making and unfolding day by day to the unknown horizons in critical
analysis of a crisis situation. What went wrong to the aviation system that
despite all of the information-age advancements and technological
sophistication, none can tell with surety what tragedy hit the flight 370
enroute to Beijing
with 239 passengers on board?
Throughout the
globe, security and aviation experts and common folks engaged in finding some reasonable
consolation to growing concerns would like to comprehend what the Malaysian
authorities knew once the plane was missing. Strange as it seems, nine days
later, Prime Minister Najib Razik asserts that it was a “deliberate” diversion
of the plane. Why the plane was not reported missing once it failed to
transform into Vietnamese airspace? Time and prompt action could have changed the
unknown outcome. How come the sudden diversion to the West of the Malaysian
airspace was not detected by any of its air force or radar surveillance? Unusual
as is, the plane’s transponder was turned off but it did not alarm any control
tower observers. In any crisis situation, facts gathering and facts analysis
are the primary point of investigation into the problem. Suspicious and
paranoid most international experts and media commentators are on the crux of
the problems of the mystery flight, facts were hard to filter out from the
responsible Malaysian officials - both civilians and military even after seven
days had lapsed. At times, the Malaysian authorities appear very reluctant to
share even basic crude information related to the missing flight. At Kuala Lumpur, the initial
briefings and press conferences lacked coherent and substantial data on the
flight progressive path once it was reported to have disappeared from the radar.
Zahaire Shah, the pilot is reportedly to
have said “All right, good night” but to whom? A week later his voice is under scrutiny. Were
there other suspected activists on board who might have re-routed the plane to
some unknown destination? Lately, the
existence of large lithium batteries in cargo was cited for the mishap. Today,
the Malaysian Prime Minister Razik conceived the possibility that the plane was
taken-over by someone else. Also Prime Minister Najib disclosed that,
"based on new satellite communication, we can say with a high degree of
certainty that ... ACARS was disabled just before the aircraft reached the east
coast of peninsular Malaysia." Despite all this, the whereabouts of the
plane are unknown. Perhaps, the official were unaware of the extent of human
anxieties and concerns of the loved-ones and of those passengers who went
missing abruptly without a trace. Tragedies demand immediate attention and
workable alternatives and remedies as they bring the mankind together
regardless of ethnicities, religions, and political affiliations as did the
Japanese Tsunami in 2011.
Was the plane
hijacked or its operation sabotaged by some passengers or group of
terrorists? Most often, the thought
process commandeered the media analysts to variety of casual but probable
scenarios, still in the making process. A vital question begs a rational
answer. Did the Malaysian authorities have the professional capacity to
understand highly complex and multiple dimensions of the tragedy and be able to
cope with its short and long terms impacts on public mind? From the outset, and based on their initial
reactionary gatherings and interactive communication to the relatives and
friends of the passengers, the poor PR performance and lack of tangible information
of the facts of the flight made things worst to all concerned. Clearly, the
reliability factor was absent during the information exchange. The officials
demonstrated more stars and stripes and so many stood to face the audience
without any logical discourse and coherent framework of strategies to
communicate effectively with diverse audience and viewers watching across the
globe. Why the Malaysian authorities were not equipped to deal with a critical
and highly challenging crisis situation of their own making? Not embittered but understanding the painful
tragic incident, the global audience wanted to help the Malaysian authorities
only if they wanted collaboration from all with professional knowledge and
expertise in analyzing previous air disasters and coming up with evidence-based
conclusions. In an emergency of this proportion, humanity comes to share all it
could to find answers and alleviate the sufferings of the victims and attain comforting
and sustainable solution. Perhaps, this message did not resonate well to the
Malaysian officials. After nine days of the disappearance of the flight 370,
they are not sure about the essential facts of the crisis management and
continued to demonstrate indifference toward global cooperation and help as it
should have been the staring point of the investigation.
What happened to
the Flight 370? Nobody with certainty
could answer this question.
The CNN appear
to have organized the best possible knowledge-based discussions and presentations
enriched with know-how, when there was no information on the missing flight,
and participating analytical experts from the aviation industry, legal and
security apparatus offered penetrating insights to the crisis management. Some
theories and foresight as to how the flight got lost were plausibly logical and
should have paved ways to investigators to ponder for more thought provoking
process. Is the flight 370 is simply missing somewhere on this planet, or we
lack the information-based capacity to know where to exactly look for it? If it crashed somewhere, would the debris be
still floating on water? Understandably, there are 43 ships and 58 aircrafts of
14 or more nations and numerous other advanced technological entities are
engaged in search for the mystery flight 370. Yet, after a week of concerted
efforts, nothing has turned out to be known, what was unknown from the
beginning - how did the flight 370 go
missing? What could possibly have happened to its international 239 passengers,
the crew and the plane itself? None
could substantiate with reasonable answers except human theories and guesswork
and speculatory “pings” coming from the plane engine system, sketchy radar
signals unable to calculate the proper direction of the flight and lot more,
perhaps unthinkable in a rational analytical construct. An instinctive
recognition of the unknown and unthinkable allusion comes into a world of willing
suspicion of disbelief, be it the experts or the concerned global viewers.
More we ponder
on the unknown tragedy of the mystery flight, more critical and painful it
comes to be felt throughout the hearts and minds of the global mankind to seek
rational answers, when there are no answers but conflicting analogies and
perceptions – what might have happened
to the missing flight. One CNN female moderator set the human feelings
clearly: “I have never been to Malaysia
but for the last six nights, I could not sleep.” Undeniably, the common
flourishing sentiment rests on the moral and humanitarian concerns - the well being and safety of the 239
passengers and what happened to them? The global human instinct remains deeply
touched by the unfolding cumbersome developments of the lost flight. Who will answer the focal question - where
is this flight? The agonizing search
is shifting metaphor minute by minute and now investigators are looking beyond
the original parameters and more towards the Indian Ocean, West of Malaysia and
South China Sea region. But theories and
scenarios are overshadowed by individual and collective concerns of all the parties
involved in the search. Rather than narrowing the areas of immediate search,
its hurriedly fluxed expansion seems to signal chaotic mental microscope
looking for rational answers. To an ordinary folk watching the news, why are we
unable to locate the flight after nine days of strenuous efforts?
Often crisis
situations offer a healthy challenge to our ingenuity, sense of humanity and responsibility. Rejecting wait and see attitude and
behavioral indifference for a worthy humanitarian cause, the spontaneous collaborative
response outpoured from various countries such the USA, Europe, Thailand,
Vietnam, India, China, Australia and others to assist the Malaysian government
in locating the missing flight. The spirit of global volunteerism in a crisis situation
is of utmost importance and value to build a better future for humanitarian
cooperation.
Be it a
“terrorism” scenario of the few, planned hijacking of Flight 370, mechanical
failure of the plane systems or “sabotage” by some sadistic and cruel minds,
the truth will be discovered sooner or later. No insane manifestation could
triumph in this tragic situation as the individual and collective conscience of
the mankind is fully in tact and living across the globe to pray and hope for
the best of 239 human lives. The framework of multinational cooperation must be
admired whether the plane is somewhere in tact or vanished in the shallow
waters of the sea or landed somewhere in a disbelief scenario that we do not
know yet. Facts will be known when the flight recorder and other data are found
- how, why, who and when the tragedy hit the flight 370? All crises provide new
information and knowledge for analysis and futuristic precautions - the
learning curve and experience to experts and laymen alike. Agreeably, Malaysian
officials will be the net beneficiary of the outcomes, whether the plane dipped
into sea, was hit by some unknown mishap or broke apart in the air or was
sabotaged by some cruel and sadistic people. The findings and expert
conclusions will serve a clear purpose to the grieving relatives and friends of
the passengers. Surely, the tragedies and conclusive outcomes assist
us to enrich our knowledge, experience and understanding of the unique unthinkable
situations which become thinkable and affect our lives. All conflicts and crisis contribute new
factors to our knowledge of the known and unknown. They help us to prepare
ourselves to deal with future more carefully and with clarity of purpose to
find rational answers to mysterious and chaotic developments shaping our world
of the known and the unknown. Crises of this nature should enrich our enduring
capacity and make us more vigilant, intelligent and powerful to encounter the
formidable challenges of human life. Thus, be it the economics, politics and
humanitarian causes, we could face them with the power of focused mind and
coherent and unified resolve as One Humanity rising above the ugly conflicts of
names and fames and working together for the best of living mankind.
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