The MH370 mystery from where I stand

The things they say without thinking much.

“Who do they think they are?” One alleged family member in Beijing.

In one interview shown on television, one supposed family member angrily said (talking about MAS and the Malaysian representative), “Who do they think they are?”.  Well, the answer that should be given to him is, they think they are the people trying to find your relative. They think they are the people who are trying to save your relatives’ lives.  

“The Malaysian authorities are not telling us anything”

Firstly, what if there is nothing to tell. The search is / was still ongoing and at the time, it had not revealed any new information. So what do you want them to do? Make up stories to entertain your? If you want to hear fairy tales or tales of hate just turn on your smartphones and log on to the social media, there is plenty of those there.,

Secondly, if some new information does turn up, do you want them to inform you of it immediately? What exactly can you do with the information that will help with the search? Unless you are an expert or have experience in the specific fields, telling you the information would really be pointless if not counter-productive.

 “They should verify the information before they release them”

One moment, do you want them to take the time to verify the information or do you want them to inform you of every single piece of information the moment it comes?

This is  real life search and rescue operation, not an episode of NCIS or CSI, verifying information does not take 5 minutes.  A simple recovery of a hard disk of just 250 gigabytes will take hours not five minutes like in NCIS. Verifying the content of an oil slick that may contain deposits from many sources does not take five minutes like in an episode of CSI be it Las Vegas, New York or Miami.

Trying to piece together the psychological state of a person at any particular time requires hour and hours of analysis of everything connected to the person in question unlike in an episode of Criminal Minds.  

“They keep changing their story and contradicting themselves”

That is what happens when people pursue every available lead. It is also what happens when people jump the gun and release information before they are sure of it.

Let’s get a few things right

This is a Search and Rescue Operation not a ‘make people feel better’ operation.

This is where I find myself deeply respecting the families who chose to stay home and contribute by praying for the success of the operation and the safety of their relatives and others on board MH370.

I have even greater respect for those who are also praying for the safety and well-being of the personnel involved in the search and rescue operation.  These are rational people with much faith, unlike those hysterical “people” sitting around and blaming anything that moves.

If you are not contributing anything to the search, you are adding to the problem

Every moment, every cent spent trying to please you or entertaining you takes something away from the efforts to find MH370 and the people you claim you miss.  There is something that we, involved or uninvolved with the MH370 SAR, should really ask ourselves, “Am I contributing to solving the problem or am I adding to the problem at hand?”