Almost more than two weeks after that plane went missing, it is still a mystery – with no trace of debris, no conclusive proof of a terrorist attack, no message from the crew – and everyone is baffled, wondering what has become of the 239 people on board. While both experts and the Toms-Dicks- Harrys of the world have brainstormed for possible explanations, more twists and turns keep popping up, much like the plot of a good mystery novel.
Ironically, in the times of the Internet, high-tech gadgets, robots and even self-driven cars, we are still left wondering how can something as big as a plane just disappear. Technology today makes it possible for an ordinary person to trace another ordinary person anywhere in the world. Then how on earth that ill-fated plane has made us suddenly realise that apparently, our location cannot be tracked while we are flying?
Yes, planes nowadays also have Internet access. Passengers can read detailed maps and know their exact location. Then the irony is, in a completely wired world like ours, a Boeing vanishes without any electronic trace, giving the rescue team an almost impossible task of searching the open waters across thousands of square miles.
The bottom line is that we need to face the fact that the limitless technology we take for granted has its limitations. The reason why people can be traced on land is because their phones connect to a telecommunication tower and up above in the air there are no such towers. Air travel nowadays sees more use of mobile devices on planes, but apparently such use requires a special base station for the plane to send communications to a satellite, which then reports to the ground. Whether or not one has this service depends entirely on how the plane is equipped. Phones do carry GPS chips, but these are types that require a constant data connection.
I am told that Wi-Fi could be the technology that might have helped, as mobile devices on cruising planes would have been linked with the Internet until other communication systems went down. If the Malaysian Airlines plane had Wi-Fi, any of its passengers may have left a post on the Internet, which could have helped the investigators. And besides, Wi-Fi, God also could have helped, if he cared, that is.
