What happened to Malaysian Flight 370?
What happened to Malaysian Flight 370?
We have more questions than answers, and the story is changing minute by minute. As I type this, the latest report I see seems to back the belief that it was hijacked.
I’ve been wondering about that.
When writers get together, we talk about strange things, evil things, like how to kill someone and get away with it. For me, one topic I’ve done a lot of research on is how to steal an airplane. In Sisterhood, a Cessna Citation is stolen, its passengers held for ransom. My psionic sisters save the day, acting as human transponders.
But could someone really steal an airplane?
First: it would require a lot of skill.
Second: you’d need somewhere to land the plane.
In Sisterhood, a group of terrorists hijack small aircraft. The Citation is about 1/3 the length of Flight 370. I thought it might just be possible to hide an aircraft that could hold roughly 12 passengers, not the more than 200 that were on Flight 370.
When I wrote that scene, I felt it was a stretch of the imagination. To find a place to land it where the plane would not be seen, to hide it, to deal with the passengers — all of these aspects would have to be considered in detail before the hijacking. Of course, in Sisterhood, my completely fictional organization, Hailar, has vast resources. And if someone did steal Flight 370, they’d need a wealth of resources as well.
While I would love to hear that all of the passengers aboard Flight 370 are alive, I doubt it. In every air disaster I’ve heard of recently, someone has pulled out a cell phone and made a phone call. Current theory is that 30% of passengers leave their cell phones on during flight. Why didn’t anyone call for help?
One piece of troubling data is that the plane may have climbed above 45,000 feet, suffocating the passengers.
I’m used to trying to twist my thinking into the place where I can understand evil, but this makes me sick. This would be more evil than my worst villains could pull off.
We won’t know the truth — if we even know it then — until we can find that aircraft.
So — where is the plane? We don’t know. But — we can help look.
