According to the Malaysian government, MA370 went down in the Southern Indian Ocean with no hope of survivors. This doesn’t come as a surprise, but it’s sad. I had rather hoped that the plane had be hijacked so that the people had a chance. But it is not to be it would seem. Still many question remain and I wanted to address that: questions will always remain—at least for some.
Over the past couple of weeks I’ve heard all kind of ridiculous speculation. There was the contention that the plane had been hijacked by terrorists who were fitting it with explosives. They were then going to crash it into a building in the United States. Or Israel. It seems that to many conservatives in this country, Israel is the most patriotic state in the union. Another theory was really a classic in the “government is so secretive except they left clues” genre: the plane was taken hostage and the American government was negotiating with the terrorists, but just wasn’t telling anyone. And, of course, there were actually people claiming it was abducted by aliens. My colleague at The Reaction tweet out this brilliant response:
"@nycsouthpaw: Plane still gone?" Maybe it'll show up at end of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Part II." Along with @RichardDreyfuss.
— Michael Stickings (@mjwstickings) March 18, 2014
But let’s assume the best: the wreckage is found and we have the black box and everything is figured out. In that case, people will still think there is some kind of conspiracy. As it is, I still hear people say that Flight 93 didn’t really go down. And one of their reasons: because there was no wreckage. Except that there was wreckage and it has been widely reported.
The problem is that for over two weeks, people have been able to speculate. And it was the best kind of speculation: based upon an almost complete absence of evidence! So a lot of people are vested in a particular theory. And if not that then at least the idea that there was something nefarious going on. And even if it turns out that the captain went crazy or something similar, that won’t be nearly as compelling as terrorists (Or governments!) conspiring to do their evil secret deeds.
So be prepared for being pulled into silly conversations about “what really happened” to Malaysia Airlines flight 370 long after you thought that everyone already knew.
