flight information board shows Malaysia Airlines flight MH 0017, after
the plane crashed in eastern Ukraine, at Kuala Lumpur International
Airport in Sepang, Malaysia, Friday, July 18, 2014. Malaysia Airlines
said it lost contact with Flight 17 over Ukrainian airspace Thursday,
flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. AP PHOTO/VINCENT THIAN
In what appears to be a mind-boggling coincidence, Malaysia is
reeling from the second tragedy to hit its national airline in less than
five months.
On March 8, a Malaysia Airlines jetliner vanished about an hour
after taking off from Kuala Lumpur, spawning an international mystery
that remains unsolved. On Thursday, the airline—and the nation—were
pitched into another crisis after the same type of aircraft was reported
shot down over Ukraine.
Ukraine said the plane was brought down by a missile over the
violence-wracked eastern part of the country. Other details were only
just beginning to emerge.
But what’s certain is that the struggling airline and the nation
must now prepare for another agonizing encounter with grief,
recriminations, international scrutiny and intense legal and diplomatic
implications.
Amid it all, a question: Just how could disaster strike the airline twice in such a short space of time?
“Either one of these events has an unbelievably low probability,”
said John Cox, president and CEO of Safety Operating Systems and a
former airline pilot and accident investigator. “To have two in a just a
few months of each other is certainly unprecedented.”
The first disaster deeply scarred Malaysia and left the world
dumbstruck. How could a Boeing 777-200ER, a modern jumbo jet, simply
disappear? Flight 370 had veered off course during a flight to Beijing
and is believed to have crashed in the Indian Ocean far off the western
Australian coast.
The search area has changed several times, but no sign of the
aircraft, or the 239 people aboard, has been found. Until then, how the
plane got there is likely to remain a mystery.
No mystery this time
On Thursday, there was no mystery over the whereabouts of the
Boeing 777-200ER, which went down while on a flight from Amsterdam to
Kuala Lumpur with 280 passengers and 15 crew members. Its wreckage was
found in Ukraine, and there were no survivors.
Officials said the plane was shot down at an altitude of 10,000
meters (33,000 feet.) The region has seen severe fighting between
Ukrainian forces and pro-Russia separatists in recent days.
Malaysia Airlines was widely criticized for the way it handled
the Flight 370 hunt and investigation. Some relatives of those on board
accused the airline of engaging in a cover-up, and there have been
persistent conspiracy theories over the fate of the plane, including
that it might have been shot down.
There was no immediate reason to think the two disasters to befall the airline were in any way linked.
Cox said that to his knowledge, there was no prohibition against
flying over eastern Ukraine despite the fighting on the ground. He said
that if the plane was shot down by a missile, the pilot probably did not
even know it.
“A missile like this typically closes in from behind, there is no reason for him to have seen it,” he said.
Charles Oman, a lecturer at the department of aeronautics and
astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said it was
too early to draw conclusions. He said terrorism was one possible
consideration, but noted that the security out of Amsterdam was
competent.
“Given the military conflict in the region, one has to be
concerned that identities could have been mistaken,” he said in an
e-mail.
Malaysia Airlines was especially criticized for the way it
handled the communications around the missing jetliner, which presented
unique challenges because of the uncertainty facing the relatives of
those on board. With the plane crashing Thursday over land and its
wreckage already located, there will be no such uncertainty.
But the investigation will be just as sensitive. There will be
legal and diplomatic implications depending on who was responsible.
“The airline and the Malaysian transport ministry took a lot of
hits for the way they handled MH370, due to their inexperience,” Oman
said. “Hopefully they will do better this time.”
The accident will surely inflict more financial damage on
Malaysia Airlines. Even before the March disaster, it reported losses
because of stiff competition from budget airlines. Afterward, passengers
canceled flights, and even though the airline is insured, it faces
uncertainty over payouts to the victims’ families.–Chris Brummitt
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