Few things in today’s modern world have captured as much global attention as the missing Malaysia flight 370. It is a mystery of what happened, and also a tell all of the limitations of today’s technologies beyond the sea’s horizon.
Putting the personal tragedy aside and focusing on what has captured people’s attention about this missing flight is amazing to understand. What parts of human behavior are common enough to have focused the world’s attention on this still unfolding mystery. Is it because so many of us have been in exactly the same place being in a commercial aircraft flying over vast expanses of water with no land in sight? Is it because of the mystery of trying to figure out the answers by piecing together a theory based on clues? Is it a general fear of being helpless and under the control of a sick mind or terrorist? Or is it simply something more primal imbedded in all of us?
The theories of what happened range the entire spectrum. From the absurd of being just a huge publicity stunt for an up and coming movie, to the real life possibility that this abduction is just the first step in the next 9-11 type attack where we see an aircraft flown into tall buildings. The latter would suggest a significant change in the ability of terrorist to recruit people that can effectively slip past airport security.
At the very least there is little doubt a ‘LoJack’ type of device will be installed in aircraft from here forward. A LoJack device is a hidden locator beacon used to track a stolen vehicle that the vehicle operator has no control over.
Trying to understand what has captured our attention about flight 370 is no doubt being examined by people that look to make a profit on it. The same people that look to analyze each and every click of your computer mouse, to seeing what shows on TV will capture your attention are doing an in-depth study to find the next vein of advertising gold.
The tragedy of the loss of human life in flight 370 is much less a factor than people think. For the most part many people have simply become numb because of ongoing killings in places like Syria. It has just become another story in the news only occasionally worthy of being on the front page. Just 10 days after flight 370 disappeared, you really needed to start to dig to find news on the topic unless you have setup a Google news feed that will faithfully deliver the news to your E-mail be you asleep or awake.
So that leads us back to the desire to figure out the mystery of what happened. When we are told that 67 people died in a terrorist suicide bombing, we feel sad but the thought quickly passes onto other things. There is no mystery in that bombing other than knowing the name of the bomber. The answer to that is known once investigators find the parts of the bomber’s body that can be identified like fingers or face. It is only the unusual out of the norm things that capture more of our attention. It is not everyday a commercial aircraft vanishes in a highly populated corner of the world, and that seems to be one of the key reasons we are so attentive to each and every bit of news about this mystery.
