A number of days in the past, Netflix launched a present concerning the disappearance of MH370. I simply received achieved watching this collection, so I needed to first recap the fundamentals, after which share my take, as I’ve combined emotions.
Netflix present about disappearance of MH370
Arguably the best thriller in fashionable aviation is the disappearance of flight MH370. In March 2014, a Malaysia Airways Boeing 777 with 239 individuals onboard went lacking whereas enroute from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. This has been the supply of quite a lot of theories and hypothesis through the years, and a brand new Netflix present is tackling that subject as soon as once more.
The “speculative docuseries” was launched on March 8, 2023, and comprises interviews with members of the family, scientists, and investigative journalists. This can be a three half collection:
- The primary episode takes a detailed look into the hours and days following the airplane’s disappearance, together with what occurred when conspiracy theories and false accusations began to spiral uncontrolled
- The second episode discusses how the probabilities of two plane from the identical airline crashing simply months aside (as MH17 additionally crashed just a few months later) is infinitesimal, inflicting conspiracy theories to go even additional
- The third episode explores how after intensive searches, there are questions of whether or not the wreckage discovered off the East African coast is the truth is from MH370, as households and a few journalists are skeptical
You possibly can see the trailer for your self under.
My tackle Netlix’s MH370 present
Let me begin by saying that I like watching nearly any type of crime or thriller present on Netflix, and when there’s an aviation angle, I’m much more than common.
Admittedly one of many challenges with many Netflix documentaries is that they’re painfully drawn out, provided that success is measured by minutes watched, fairly than complete variety of viewers. That offers producers a giant incentive to make exhibits longer than they must be.
With that in thoughts, I didn’t get tired of this present, and whereas it was lengthy, it didn’t linger on anyone subject for too lengthy, maybe to a fault.
Let me share just a few of my key takeaways…
A variety of air time is given to conspiracy theories
The collection undoubtedly provides quite a lot of consideration to MH370 conspiracy theories:
- One principle is that the airplane was hijacked by Russians, who entered the electronics bay, took management of the plane, after which ultimately crashed it, all to distract the world from Russia’s invasion of Crimea
- One other principle is that the airplane was shot down by the US due to the cargo it was carrying to China, after navy plane disabled MH370’s communications techniques
- The collection calls into query quite a lot of the sources of knowledge, just like the man who someway simply randomly finds all of the particles within the South Indian Ocean, which certain appears a bit suspicious; there are questions of what his hyperlinks are to Russia
The issue is, all these theories are offered, however all of them appear just a little half baked by way of the main points which are shared. In different phrases, they stroll via the potential eventualities, with out really addressing quite a lot of the logical follow-up questions individuals would have.
Are these theories actually that outlandish?
Lots of people are calling this collection reckless, and are saying it provides means an excessive amount of air time to conspiracy theories. I completely get that, however actually, is the prevailing principle about what occurred any much less wild?
That principle is that the captain primarily hijacked the airplane, depressurized the cabin to kill everybody onboard, tried to evade radar by making some turns, after which flew the 777 for six to seven hours till it ran out of gasoline. I’m not saying that couldn’t have occurred (and I agree that it’s the more than likely principle), however isn’t this objectively completely preposterous, and even unsubstantiated?
We’ve seen some pilots commit murder-suicide earlier than, however sometimes they only fly the airplane into the bottom. Are we to consider that the captain made an enormous recreation of this, flying the airplane for hours and hours with a purpose to by no means be discovered once more? And if the captain actually considered this as a recreation (which might make him a really sick human being), wouldn’t he have made much more of a recreation of this, and left some attention-grabbing notes or hints? Wouldn’t there have been some cheap principle as to his motives?
With virtually each different pilot suicide we’ve seen, there was a really clear path of what result in that, from chapter, to life insurance coverage insurance policies, to a historical past of melancholy. That’s actually not the case right here.
My level is that there’s actually no proof pointing to the captain having achieved this, and I don’t suppose anybody can actually argue that that is definitively what occurred, past an inexpensive doubt. In different phrases, conspiracy theories aren’t as wild as they’d in any other case be when the prevailing perception concerning the incident additionally sounds a complete lot like a conspiracy principle.
For that motive, I used to be additionally dissatisfied that the collection didn’t spend extra time overlaying the idea concerning the pilot. How a lot time was collectively spent speaking concerning the captain’s background? Possibly a minute? I really feel like that’s an actual missed alternative…
There are some characters on the present
I appreciated the wide range of people that had been interviewed for the present, from households of the victims, to plane accident investigators. Nonetheless, there are additionally quite a lot of extra questionable characters being interviewed. I feel maybe they’re overly being offered as consultants, when in actuality they’re extra alongside the traces of Fb sleuths (which, there’s worth to that, however…).
There have been undoubtedly some interviews within the collection that I feel are price taking with a grain of salt. I want there had been extra questions with the precise consultants (skilled 777 captains, the plane accident investigator, and so on.), to hash out how precisely the captain may have achieved this.
Backside line
A brand new Netflix collection concerning the disappearance of Malaysia Airways flight MH370 has now been launched. I simply completed watching this, and it was actually a charming present to observe. Nonetheless, simply bear in mind that it spends quite a lot of time targeted on conspiracy theories, whereas lots of the apparent flaws with these theories aren’t addressed.
Then once more, when there actually isn’t any proof, and when the prevailing principle is that this was a mass murder-suicide with no proof, is there something that shouldn’t be examined?
Are you going to be watching this present about MH370? You probably have the prospect to observe, please share your ideas!
