DB Earhart

I'm beginning to get very drawn into the story of the missing Malaysian jet. This happened a number of days ago when I was in Jamaica. I heard a snippet of some kind of news account, or I heard somebody saying something about disappearing from radar. I didn't think much of it, and certainly while at a resort far a family wedding, I didn't much want to think about it. I got more thorough details when I picked up some Jamaican newspapers at the airport on my way home.

In addition to being a probable tragedy, it's also shaping up into a real mystery. There are some rather interesting details. The plane disappeared from radar with hours of fuel left, and the search originally centered at the spot where it was last seen. That has turned up nothing, and now it's evident that it actually could have (and probably did) flown for hours with its transponder off, so that whatever became of it, it may not be anywhere near the original search zone. For a bit, they thought they were sure of a change of course, but that was taken back.

Another intriguing detail is about a couple of passengers with stolen passports. They later proved to be from Iran, and who knows what part in this they may have? Perhaps it's academic what there is in that, or maybe following that lead will actually contribute towards finding the plane, which is certainly the big concern. Certainly there's a lot of logic in people with stolen passports having something to do with a plane that diverged from its flight plan deliberately, if that's what happened.

They may never find the thing. The odds are against it, if you ask me. At this point, the search zone encompasses such an enormous swath of the Earth that even a well-coordinated international effort would have to depend very heavily on dumb luck in order to turn up the plane. I wouldn't count on this thing wrapping up any faster than the hunt for Amelia Earhart, on whose recovery the clock is still ticking. I may be wrong and they may turn up the thing today, but I wouldn't put serious money on it.