(The Malaysian Boeing 777-200ER that has gone missing, taking off in better times last year. Photo Malaysian Air Lines.)

Goodness, there is a lot going out there in the wide world. The mystery of the missing Boeing Jet in the South China Sea- or as of this morning, perhaps the Strait of Malacca- is one big riddle. Some apparent facts are dribbling out. Two Iranian men are said to have used passports stolen in Thailand to have gained access to the world air travel system.

Their travels supposedly originated in Doha, in the Emirates, and then led to Malaysia and onto the vanished jet, heading for Beijing and then further transportation to points in Europe. Too soon to speculate, though of course that is the first thing we all do. Young men, probably Shia by religion, one might reasonably suppose, were one to profile passengers, which of course we are not supposed to do these days.

I have more than a passing interest in this. I was listening to National Public Radio yesterday, motoring up from the farm to the collective delusion we call Washington. Around the truck stops at the Opal junction, I heard an interview with an informative US Navy commander, who explained some of the capabilities being deployed to search for wreckage. He was calling from the same ship that the JG is riding, so the family is on the case.

In my time, I worked the side issues of other aviation mysteries. Korean Airlines Flight 007 was shot down by the Soviets when I was an analyst in the Pacific, and I was on active duty during the Lockerby bombing against Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988. That particular horror killed 259 passengers and crew and another 11 on the ground. I still have questions about that one, as well as about TWA Flight 800 that exploded over Long Island Sound in 1996, killing 230 passengers and crew.

All three of those flights were Boeing 747s, the long-range versions intended for intercontinental flight.

I am not going to bring up the matter of Pan Am Flight 73, a 747 that was hijacked on the ground in Pakistan, and never departed the runway, though it degenerated into a massacre.

Just to step back for a moment: here is what is known about the fate of the Boeing 777-200ER:

Malaysian military radar suggests plane turned back and flew some distance- it may have traveled a long way from last air traffic contact.

Hijack, sabotage, mechanical failure also being investigated.
Search in fourth day by maritime forces of nine nations.
227 passengers and 12 crew presumed dead aboard lost flight.
19-year-old Iranian holding a stolen passport aboard the plane.
Interpol says 43 million travel documents are known to possibly be in circulation.

I naturally thought of an act of terror when I first heard the aircraft was missing. But realistically, pilot error or mechanical malfunction are equally logical solutions to a conundrum. The jet itself was one of Boeing’s better efforts- I had to ensure it was not one of the troubled Boeing 787 Dreamliners, the ones with the erratic batteries that periodically burst into flames.

The Boeing 777 flown by Malaysia Airlines that is missing is one of the world’s safest jets. The first fatal crash in its 19-year operational history only came last July when an Asiana Airlines jet landed short of the runway in San Francisco, killing three.

There was something very troubling about that incident. It appeared to be clear pilot error, nothing intrinsic to the jet itself. Interviews with veteran Captains suggest that many of the world’s airlines rely completely on the software and computers to fly the jets, and the only time the crew actually is hands-on the controls is during take off and landing. That, as it turns out, is what doomed KAL 007- the navigation way-points were entered incorrectly, routing the aircraft over sensitive military installations on the Kamchatka Peninsula. The crew never realized they were off course. I took that flight more than once when I was living in Korea, and I find the trend of human disengagement to be more than a little troubling.

The loss of Air France Flight 447 confirmed the fact that even a first-world national airline no longer has the comprehensive flight skills to overcome a lack of training and experience. That crash- an Airbus- shares several aspects with the Malaysian mystery: the flight recorders were not found for 23 months, and the truth, once it became known, was yesterday’s news.

Here is a key judgement from the accident investigation, once the flight recorders were finally found and the data analyzed:

“The pilots were accustomed to using an autopilot system during cruise and may have been out of their element when forced to fly manually in situations other than takeoff and landing. They were poorly trained for emergency situations at high altitudes and did not seem to realize that the plane was stalling until it was too late.”

So, too soon to know anything for sure, though the search for Flight 447 suggests that however deep the mystery, eventually the truth will emerge.

For my part, I was crashing around myself in the semi-darkness since the Maids are coming today, which means I have to get the place tidy enough to be cleaned. Passing through the semi-darkened kitchen, something larger than a tarantula and smaller than a baseball dropped off a counter and hit the floor with a soft fleshy sound disappeared, presumably into the minor gap on the skirting under the dishwasher.

There is another mystery to deal with. I appear to have an infestation of some sort, which requires an offensive by this human against vermin. It is too metaphoric this morning to dwell on. I am sure we will be talking about this and the other mystery de jour as the Spring arrives in Mystery City.

Copyright 2014 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com
Twitter: @jayare303.