It has been over two weeks since Malaysia flight MH370 vanished without a trace. The disappearance launched extensive investigations, suspicions, allegations and global search efforts. It seemed almost inconceivable, in today’s modern age, that an international flight with a plane of this size could completely disappear off the radar. It has recently been concluded that the flight likely went down in a remote area of the southern Indian Ocean, further diminishing any chance of survivors and little hope for wreckage recovery.
As the relatives of the passengers and crew try to cope with the tragedy, the aviation industry and key players in international travel will devote countless hours and research to determining exactly what went wrong, how to prevent it from happening in the future and how to be better prepared if something similar were to happen again. As a recreational pilot myself, I have been closely following this story and asking myself what I could take away from such a unique and complicated tragedy.
The disappearance of the flight raises a wealth of questions for the aviation industry. The search and rescue efforts raise international relations questions. And there are number of other parties that have questions of their own. However, for those of us on the ground and not involved at such high levels of international security, what can we take from this tragic flight?
For me, the most profound link in the chain of mystery of this flight is the location of where it is suspected to have crashed. The location of the crash is so remote that it is hardly covered by satellites of the countries closest to the area. With today’s advanced technology, we often arrogantly assume we know all there is to know, have discovered all there is to discover, have seen all there is to see. As we have seen with this tragedy, there is still a lot left to be explored.
The term “never stop exploring” has been adopted by the brand The North Face but applies to much more than fraternity guys walking to class in the rain. From its highest peaks to its deepest ocean trenches, our world is vast and rich with things yet to be discovered. The comforts and knowledge that modern technology has brought us should not quench our thirst but inspire and enable us to push further and do more. As long as there is still earth that is untouched, species never seen, waters never travelled, we should never stop exploring.
Anna Rush is a law student from Hattiesburg. She graduated from Mississippi State in 2011.
