MH370: Where art thou?

It is time for the authorities to come clean on the vanishing saga. Speak clearly on what is happening, especially to the relatives, and stop throwing bombastic jargons that only an aviation or military expert can understand.

Forty-three days and still counting. The current scenario in the search for the missing MH370 only seems to strengthen the various conspiracy theories surrounding the mystery.

Authorities from more than 20 nations have mobilised their best military might and the best technology there is, but there is not a single shred of evidence yet, to suggest the missing MAS jet had crashed in the southern Indian Ocean.

The Wall Street Journal had reported that the inability by the search party to find any form of wreckage or debris linked to the flight had sparked hope among relatives of passengers on board, that they might be still alive, on land somewhere.

Mohamad Sahril Shaari, 24, the cousin of passenger Mohd Razahan Zamani, demanded the authorities to show concrete proof to back their crash claim.

"I do not think it is in the sea because if it was, they would have found the broken pieces. I think the plane most probably landed somewhere.

"You should spend time looking for the plane on land. Show us irrefutable proof, or we are not going to accept that they are dead," he said.

He has a point, as thousands of men had spent hundreds of hours scouring the vast ocean for any clue, but none had been found.

One can only assume that the 200-tonne jet had somehow crashed into the sea fully intact, with nary a broken piece, and had settled deep into silt at the bottom of the ocean, because the search party doesn't seem to find anything, even using submersibles.

Even in the case of Air France 447 in 2009, it was only the black box and the main wreckage that took two years to find, but several bodies and other smaller parts from the flight had resurfaced as early as five days after the crash.

This search mission seems to be going nowhere, prompting Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein to announce that current operations would be reviewed to decide the best way forward.

He did not elaborate what review in this context means. But it was the government's resolute belief that the flight had indeed crashed in a remote location in the southern Indian Ocean. By review, could it mean that they are questioning their own earlier conclusion and are considering other options?

Hishammuddin was quoted as saying "the search will always continue. It's just a matter of approach". Does that mean they are considering a land search now that the plane does not seem to be in the sea? That was a pretty vague statement by Hishammuddin.

Enough pain had been inflicted by withholding "top secret" and "sensitive" information. Recently, Chinese families stormed out of another briefing session in Beijing as the answers they were seeking were not forthcoming. They accused the authorities of withholding information and clearly, they are not to blame.

Such confusing and conflicting statements from the point of reference will only cause people, especially those who are desperately seeking for answers on the whereabouts of their loved ones, to embrace what had been earlier dismissed as conspiracy theories, such as hijacked and kept in a top secret location etcetera, as a possible conclusion.

And the authorities' inability to dismiss those theories with concrete proof only strengthens them further. After all, some of the theories make more sense than the current "crashed in this spot in the ocean but somehow no debris found" status.

It is time for the authorities to come clean on the vanishing saga. Speak clearly on what is happening, especially to the relatives, and stop throwing bombastic jargons that only an aviation or military expert can understand. Tell things as it is, and maybe, just maybe, the people will start believing again.

The Ant Daily