People suffered great pain and shock on January 17 when officials called off the investigation of Flight MH370. After 3 years of searching for answers, the government has stopped due to “non-credible evidence”. The commercial flight went missing on March 8, 2014 with 239 people on board.
At 12:41 am, the flight left Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia for Beijing, China. The flight was heading north, with its last primary radar data, meaning that after this point, there was no further data directly from the plane itself, north east of Indonesian. "Good night Malaysian Three Seven Zero," was the last message from the flight until its course went westward, according to a military radar. The flight rounded the edge of Indonesia. The data after this point is an estimate by satellite data, which presumably left the plane headed south of the Indian Ocean.
Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah of the MH370 flight tracked a route on his home flight simulator that tracked deep into the Indian Ocean. Investigators confirmed this information in July 2016 and believe the simulator was the one that the missing plane took.
"Commercial planes cannot just be allowed to disappear without a trace. Stopping at this stage is nothing short of irresponsible, and betrays a shocking lack of faith in the data, tools and recommendations of an array of official experts assembled by the authorities themselves,” an organization known as Voice370 said in a statement. The group’s goal is to help and support family members of those who had family on that flight.
The three leading countries that started the investigation include Australia, China and Malaysia. The investigation was $160 million operation, but still unsuccessful.
“It’s millions and millions of money having all of those ships out there and paying all these people. There are some volunteers involved but there’s equipment. It’s dangerous out there millions of miles off the coast of Australia. It’s in a very remote area. They have to get there and then hang there for weeks,” NHS science teacher Daryl Nicholson said. Nicholson has been a pilot since 2007.
“The fact that it’s so much money to find a plane and they still haven’t found it is very suspicious so I would be very angry as well,” NHS freshman Milan Chand said.
These three countries said in a statement on July 2016 that the search would be suspended if the aircraft was not located by the time that 120,000 square kilometers were covered, roughly the size of Ohio.
"The decision to suspend the underwater search has not been taken lightly nor without sadness. Despite every effort using the best science available, cutting edge technology, as well as modeling and advice from highly skilled professionals who are the best in their field, unfortunately, the search has not been able to locate the aircraft," the three countries said in a statement on January 17.
“What is frustrating too is that they realized the search was in the wrong area and they wanted to move the search farther north,” Nicholson said.
Debris of the flight has been found on the southern coast of Africa; in places such as Tanzania, Pemba Island, Mozambique, and Mauritius.
“But it’s not unprecedented. We have had plenty of aircraft that have disappeared and the whole Bermuda triangle thing. We lost aircraft and ships out there never to be seen again. It’s sad because the people can’t really get closure.” Nicholson said.
“I think there are ups and downs on both sides of the issue but I would never want them to give up. I think that it would be a big letdown cause I would never want to lose faith if someone I loved was on flight,” Chand said.
The search for the missing plane may have been suspended due to none credible evidence by authorities, but they people will not stop thinking about what had happened during that flight. Family members and civilians may never get answers or find peace after this tragedy, but they will never forget.
Image Courtesy of The Gospel Herald