Mysterious disappearance

Last 9 days were so tense and many of us experienced unexplainable discomfort. In the present day and age, how a plane could disappear in thin air without a trace? How is it possible for a plane to go out of radar control at anytime during its flight especially when it is in a flight path surrounded by many countries? It is understandable if the flight is in Pacific Ocean or in another route largely covered with body of water without any land in the near vicinity. This incident has created aviation history for many wrong reasons.

First of all, the transponder in the plane was intentionally switched off by someone who is very familiar with Boeing 777-200. Secondly, the Aircraft Communication Addressing and Reporting System’s (ACARS) data transmission was also switched off. Thirdly, it is now established that the flight took a different direction from its normal flight path which could possibly be due to hijacking or due to one or both the pilots intentionally flying the plane in a route on a suicide mission or to take the plane to a different location. Fourthly, Malaysian military radar identified the plane drifting away from its flight path. Lastly, ACARS was sending signals to a satellite about the health of the engine and it is now clearly established that the aircraft was functioning well nearly seven and half hours after it drifted from its flight path.

All the media reports are summarizing the interviews given by Malaysian government and Malaysian Airline’s officials or the briefing done in a hotel in China to the family members of the passengers of this Malaysian Airlines Flight 370. Investigative journalists are making several theories known to the public including hijacking of the plane to Kazakhstan or remote islands in Indian Ocean or Bay of Bengal. There is a new theory that emerged today that plane might have been hijacked with an intent to hit one of the cities in India. The Indian government strongly responded that it would not be possible for any aircraft to enter the Indian territories without identifying itself. The military radars are in place to detect such intruding aircraft and there is a standard operating procedure to scramble military aircraft to guide the intruder to follow instructions failing which the intruding plane would be shot down.

Indian Ocean, Bay of Bengal and South China Sea are the most watched territories by most satellites in the world and it is not clear how no government has come forward to provide additional information leading up to finding the aircraft. Even Malaysian government was initially reluctant to announce its military radar’s detection of the aircraft drifting away from its standard route because their military capabilities would be known to the rest of the world. Frankly, it took so long for Malaysian government to announce the military radar capturing the aircraft’s deviation from its standard route and it took even longer for them to announce that a person familiar with Boeing 777-200 could only switch off Transponder and ACARS in the aircraft. It took more than 8 days for them to search the houses of the pilots.

[FONT=&quot]Frankly, NTSB, FAA and FBI have the capabilities to expedite this investigation. Similarly, the Chinese government also has capabilities to conduct a thorough investigation into this matter as most passengers in this aircraft were Chinese citizens. Unfortunately, Malaysian government is not sharing enough of its investigation results either with the US or Chinese governments. Even Indian Government suspended its search pending further response from the Malaysian government. It is time for everyone around the world to respond responsibly keeping the number of lives involved in this incident. The families deserve a closure to the agony they are experiencing for the past 9 days. What is the use of advanced information and communication technologies, if they could not help find an aircraft that disappeared without a trace? If missile technologies could strike its targets with precision, it is difficult to digest that so many countries working together could not find this plane for 9 days. It is time for every government to share all information in their possession with intent to find this missing aircraft quickly [/FONT].