The year 2014 has not been kind at all to the Malaysian airline industry. In March of this year, Malaysian Airlines MH 370 disappeared from radar scopes while on route to Beijing, China from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. To this day, it has yet to be found. Everyone is just absolutely clueless as to where the aircraft, a Boeing 777, ended up. Nobody is even sure where to look, as the aircraft's last known flight path shows it deviated from its original route.
Then in July, Malaysian Airlines MH 17 on route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was stupidly shot down by Ukrainian rebels. Claiming it was a military aircraft without confirming, two hundred ninety-eight people were essentially murdered for no reason at all but stupidity. The rebels even hindered a quick investigation into the incident, as I'm sure they wanted to cover up their stupidity. The fact that Russia supports the rebels even made a thorough investigation hard at best. To this day, nobody has been punished or made to atone for the deaths.
Now, AirAsia QZ 8501 suddenly disappeared from radar on route from Surabaya, Indonesia to Singapore. Last contact with the pilot shows him requesting to climb above bad weather, which was denied as the skies were "crowded." The search is ongoing, but it is already feared that the aircraft has gone down. Searching the oceans for a missing aircraft is more difficult than most people think. The vast area that has to be covered alone poses a problem. Plus of course, the sea swallows almost anything that cannot remain afloat. This should be considered by aircraft designers. Perhaps some major parts of any aircraft be made of materials that float on any kind of water. Debris is the first thing that search and rescue teams look for.
It is ironic that current technology allows us to look far into space. We are able to identify distant stars and planets, even postulate their history. But when it comes to the ocean's depths, we seem helpless. We just cannot seem to look down into the oceans good and fast enough to search for what lie on the bottom.
I'm sure these three flights will someday become stories on learning channels such as Discovery and National Geographic. One day, we may know what exactly happened to MH 370 and QZ 8501 in particular. Hopefully, we continue to learn from these tragedies in making air travel still the safest form. But statistics do not mean anything for those family and friends still waiting for word on the missing aircraft. Hopefully 2015 brings better news for the aviation industry as a whole.