On March 8, 2014 — nine years and one day from the day of this article’s publication — a flight from Malaysian Airlines, MH370, disappeared without a trace. This flight carried 227 passengers and 12 crew members. The suspicion of what happened to this aircraft ranges from theories surrounding the pilots to the Malaysian and Vietnamese authorities to even the civilian passengers.
This series approaches all the buzzing questions surrounding flight MH370. Some of these questions have been answered in the years since the disappearance, while others have yet to receive a plausible explanation. The story is told through the perspective of government officials, aircraft security specialists and loved ones of those on board.
The show takes a chunk of the first episode to explain how the journey of flight MH370 began. It was to take off from Kuala Lumpur airport in Malaysia at 12:41 a.m. and land in Beijing, China at 6:30 a.m. Everything leading up to takeoff went as any routine commercial flight normally would. No suspicious persons had been tagged, no technical malfunctions of the aircraft were found and the final words passengers had sent their family members did not reflect any sense of panic or concern. The plane took off and flew smoothly for about an hour before the situation worsened.
As the plane approached the end of the Malaysian aircraft surveillance and entered that of Vietnam, all of the plane’s means of communication with satellite or radar cut off entirely. Neither Malaysia nor any neighboring country had any signal disclosing MH370’s whereabouts. Once the clock struck 6:30 a.m. and the plane had not arrived in Beijing, panic grew worldwide.
News of the flight’s disappearance was covered worldwide. A montage of headlines that appeared on the televisions of millions is followed by a heart wrenching clip of passengers’ loved ones wailing in agony and distress. People’s hearts were filled with both concern for their families, as well as frustration toward Malaysian authorities because they could not comprehend how so many people could manage to lose a single plane.
At this point, the show starts surfacing the reasons that make this disappearance so mysterious. The most shocking one relates to the passengers’ cell phones.
Most, if not all, cell phone users know that if a phone is turned off or broken or lacks signal, all calls will go straight to voicemail. In this case, whenever someone tried to call a passenger on flight MH370, the ring continued until the end like any normally functioning cell phone would. Additionally, the daughter of one of the passengers received a phone call from her father onboard. In the midst of her panic, she asked authorities to advise her on what to do, as she was the first to receive any sort of communication from someone on the flight. By the time they told her to answer the call, the ring had ended. When she attempted to call back, no one responded.
The first episode concludes with a clip of former President Barack Obama, who shares the chilling news that flight MH317 had been shot down by Russian forces. This flight had also come from the Kuala Lumpur airport in Malaysia.
Given the technology of the 21st century, the eerie absence of this aircraft still disturbs many people. The purpose of both this show as well as this article is not to scare you out of flying, but to hopefully make you aware of what is possible and what to look out for. Finally, I’d like to share my biggest takeaway from what I have seen of the show: Even when in doubt, pick up the phone.
Rating: 5/5
Why has no one yet mentioned (other than a passing moment) THAT A GIRLS FATHER ONBOARD, CALLED HER FROM HIS CELL PHONE but she missed the call before it stopped. Why is this not even discussed in the Netflix show, yet, beyond that first acknowledgment? To ME THAT IS A HUGE FRKIN PIECE OF EVIDENCE!