by AMBER KELLY Photographer
The Malaysian Airlines flight 370’s disappearance is still a mystery to the world.
On Saturday, March 8, the Boeing 777-200ER departed from Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia at around 12:41 am. Reportedly, the weather was decent and the aircraft was in good working condition, meaning it was safe to use. However, about 45 minutes into the flight to Beijing, air traffic controllers lost contact with the plane.
At this point, there was no signal from the plane, and no one knew where the passenger plane carrying approximately 239 people was. The fact that no signal came from the plane tells aircraft experts that the transponder, a device used for radio signals, was either manually turned off or stopped working.
According to the airlines, the aircraft only had seven hours of fuel. This means that by later in the day on Saturday, the plane would have run out of fuel and would have either required an emergency landing or crashed.
All possible reasons for the plane’s disappearance are being looked into. Terrorism has been considered, especially since it was discovered that two passengers had stolen passports, and that these passengers’ tickets had been purchased by an Iranian man named Kazem Ali. As of now, investigators have not determined that these passengers or the man who had paid for the tickets were ever involved in any terrorist activity.
“The fact that there were stolen passports is suspicious, but I know they’re considering other causes of the disappearance. It just seems so weird that a plane disappeared and still can’t be found. I feel so bad for the families of the passengers because they don’t know what has happened to their loved ones,” says senior Lucia Fernandez.
According to a Malaysian Air Force official, radar showed that the plane’s last location was over the small island of Pulau Perak, a place completely off of the plane’s flight plan.
There has been a lot of confusion because experts have been saying that if the plane crashed, there would have been a debris trail. Yet, no such trail has been found.
Malaysian Airlines personnel stand firm that the crew was not involved in any foul play concerning the plane, and they released the transmission heard from the pilot: “All right, good night.”
The Chinese brought forward new information on Wednesday, March 12, releasing satellite images of what they believe might be the Malaysian flight. However, it has been determined that these objects were not in fact a part of the aircraft.
“I kind of did hope that the images were of the plane so then the families wouldn’t have to keep on with this search and the black box could be looked at. If it had been the plane, maybe they could have finally figured out what had happened,” says senior Jennifer Park.
Unfortunately, the search is back to square one. Hopefully, the plane and its fate will all be figured out soon.
What do you think was responsible for the flight’s disappearance?