“Unfortunately, ladies and gentlemen, we have not found anything that appear to be objects from the aircraft, let alone the aircraft,” said Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, director general of the Malaysian Civil Aviation Department.
Three dozen aircrafts, forty ships, and hundreds of rescue personnel are out searching for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 that went missing three days ago. Flight 370 took off from Kuala Lumpur before 1 am Saturday morning (1 pm Friday ET). Carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members, it was designated to land in Beijing, China when it went missing.
The search and rescue mission to bring back over 200 loved one’s home safely is heading in multiple directions due to false, inaccurate information and leads. The failure to locate an airplane raises questions as to how equip the researchers are and if they’ve been searching in the right places.
According to the Beijing Times newspaper, “Malaysia and Vietnam are relatively backward countries, without professional search and rescue teams.”
False leads have the search parties – and people watching from home – confused and wondering where are the lost passengers at sea. Many have appeared mostly inconclusive. One of the most appealing evidence was the six to nine mile long oil slick. Helicopters spotted the slick on the second day Flight 370 went missing. Almost certain it belonged to the plane, it raised questions and suspicions as to what happened.
The slick, besides what officials thought came from the plane, came up to be fuel oil typically used in cargo ships. For almost an entire day people saw this trail as the best evidence to locate the flight pattern of the plane after it lost contact. Learning what machine the oil actually belongs to through the mission back into Phase 1: not knowing what happened.
The most recent piece of evidence found (part of a plane door and its tail) could have narrowed down the rescue mission in locating the missing plane and its passengers. According to Malaysian officials, the plane door and tail appeared to be tree logs tried together floating in the Gulf of Thailand. Once again, this clue turned out to be another misleading story.
“We are looking at every angle, every aspect…every inch of the sea,” Rahman said.
To add on to the Flight 370 mystery, news is spreading about at least two (possibly four) individuals using stolen passports to board the plane. Two of the individuals bought their flight tickets together. Hearing about a missing plane with people aboard with false identities brings up concerns about a possible terrorism hijack.
Former U.S. Department of Transportation Inspector General Mary Schiavo said that the incident has some similarities to the 1994 bombing of a Philippine jetliner. At the time, investigators learned it was a test run for a plot to bomb numerous airliners.
One of the theories floating around is illegal immigration. Southeast Asia is known for having a high market for stolen passports and this missing airplane case wouldn’t be the only one involving immigration. There’s been previous cases of immigrants using fake passports to enter Western countries in search for a new life.
Officials have cautioned family members of the ones lost that it is too early to jump to any conclusion. While there is no evidence to suggest the individuals had anything to do with Flight 370’s disappearance, their presence set off an international investigation and discussion on the investigation of global travelers.
Thailand Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra told CNN “…We gave orders [to] the police to investigate the passport users. Because this is very important to Thailand, to give full cooperation to Interpol in the investigation about the passport users.”
Days since Flight 370 went missing over Gulf of Thailand, nothing is confirmed as to its whereabouts. Every lead reaches a dead end as the conspiracy theories are swarming around. The family members want peace for their loved ones and hope they are still alive. The search continues to try to bring them that peace.
