The Best of Slow Journalism: MH370 one year on

AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade

On 8th March 2014, at 12.41am, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 departed from Kuala Lumpur International Airport with 239 passengers and crew on board. Hours later, the airplane’s signal disappeared from the radar.

Since then, a year has passed and there are still no trace of any wreckage.

In his brilliant piece for The Guardian, Jon Ronson talks to some of the individuals who were affected by the disappearance and have grown increasingly desperate to find out what happened. There’s Sarah Bajc, the girlfriend of Philip Wood. This is how she explains her loss: “The person you love most in the world suddenly disappears among a cacophony of media mayhem, dashed hopes, false leads, incompetence and dishonesty.”

Then there’s Ethan Hunt, a businessman and part-time private eye who led a crowdfunding campaign that raised $100,516 to hire a private company to investigate the disappearance. “They’re getting a lot of pushback,” Hunt says about the progress that’s been made by the company. “What do you mean by pushback?” asks Ronson. Hunt: “I mean they’re not getting anywhere.”

Official investigations are seemingly leading nowhere, conspiracy theories are rife and none of the people who have lost someone on MH370 have found closure. But, as Bajc says, nobody cares any more about the biggest mystery in aviation. “Honestly. The story’s moved on. This is just one of those things that people will be shocked about, then do nothing about.”

Ronson skillfully narrates a year of unimaginable loss. His article is a fantastic read. You can access the full piece here.

Posted on Friday, March 6th, 2015 - Categories: Extras, Slow Journalism.