Recensie Netflix-series ‘MH370: The plane that disappeared’

On the night of March 7-8, 2014, a Malaysian Airlines flight left Kuala Lumpur for the Chinese capital, Beijing. There were 227 passengers and twelve crew members on board the Boeing 777. What should have been a routine flight for the crew turned into unprecedented drama. When the aircraft was northeast of Malaysia, contact was lost. It seemed to have completely disappeared from the skies and the first conclusion was that it had crashed in the South China Sea.

The missing flight MH370 would initially go down in history as the worst air disaster for the Malaysian airline. This already sad record was broken when flight MH17 was shot down over the Ukraine four months later, so we can now assume it’s the Russians. This new disaster fueled theories about what really happened aboard MH370. Because Vladimir Putin could also have something to do with this?

In the three-part Netflix miniseries. MH370: The plane that disappeared there is plenty of room for these theories, some of which even move towards conspiracy thinking. It soon became apparent that the Boeing was turning sharply to the west after losing contact. This significantly increased the search area, to remote waters. Speculation about the pilot also committing mass murder with suicide alternates with the theory that the Russians had seized the plane and brought it to Kazakhstan.

Those who follow the news a bit know that the true circumstances are still unknown. That also makes this miniseries a bit hopeless, because the facts are thin and the stories wild, implausible, and exuberant. When parts of a similar aircraft were found on Reunion Island, off the African coast, the Malaysian Airlines flight was soon linked to it. Skeptics had already predicted the find and thought it had been presented to them on a silver platter. So no pure coffee.

Those involved, from relatives to conspiracy theorists to journalists, speculate wildly. It’s hard to substantiate his readings, especially since you really have to dig into his background (and sometimes even his motives) to interpret his opinions. Conspiracy theorist and aviation journalist Jeff Wise, in particular, makes a lot of money and looks very attractive in the media. Much is based on intuition and can be imagined more with relatives than with pseudoscientists and tabloid journalists.

The sad conclusion of a three-hour accumulation of facts, theories, reconstructions, and suspicions is that we will probably never know the real story. Documentarian Louise Malkinson seems to enjoy cultivating all the hijinks and plots. Sensationalism can never and should never be a good starting point to unravel such an unprecedented drama. So let’s just hope the manufacturers don’t have the same plan for the MH17 flight, even though the evidence seems much more credible.

★★☆☆☆

MH370: The plane that disappeared can be seen in Netflix.