MH370: The Plane That Disappeared

Peter McGinn

This documentary mini-series certainly succeeds in digging into the tragedy of Flight MH370. It talks to and follows family members of the victims, both among the passengers and the crew. One advantage of this retrospective look is that they are able to slide each development of the story, each hailed as “Breaking News,” into the overall narrative that provides more of a calm perspective and analysis of how important each new development was in the scheme of things. One disadvantage this program operates under is the simple fact that there is no way of knowing definitively what happened to the airplane. There is no smoking gun, no DNA, no evidence that seals the deal on one of the theories offered. Instead we have those theories that each sound impressive, but they make you wonder about the possibility of confirmation bias. Confirmation bias, as I understand it, occurs when details lead you to believe in a possible answer to a question, but then the investigator uses that theory to explain further details that emerge, rather than keeping an open mind about what those details really signify. Or something like that. In any case the program was interesting and gave a voice to the relatives of the victims, even if in the end it still remains an aviation mystery, right up there with the fate of Amelia Earhart.