Flight 370: Into thin air

Published 7:00 am Thursday, April 3, 2014

Where is Malaysian Flight 370?

Looking back on search for Flight 370, which is now almost a month old, it seems the scope of the vast Indian Ocean is simply too much to fathom.

As more countries joined in on the search, more ships, more planes, and more equipment were sent in to aid the search. Australia, China, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, South Korea and the United States, are now giving their all in a search that unfortunately has not turned up a single piece of rubble so far.

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Meanwhile, families of the passengers, saw their faint glimmer of hope turn to disbelief and despair.  It is bewildering that with all the technology at our disposal today, no debris has yet to be discovered.

Even with the ultra-sensitive equipment used to detect the pinging of the black box, hope is fading that any new discoveries will be made because the boxes are quickly running out of battery power.

Reports in the news are confusing and some have been reported in error, as the last known words from the cockpit. At first is was reported as “All right, good night.” The report now states, “Good night Malaysian three-seven-zero.”

This tragedy is certainly heartbreaking, but what can the average American do to help? If seven great nations cannot find one missing plane, it would seem that an individual person could do nothing.

We as human beings do have an arsenal at our fingertips. We have a weapon most powerful, so there is definitely something we can do. We can pray! We can pray for the passengers and their families. We can pray for the ship captains, the pilots, the technicians, who are out there straining their eyes for any sign of debris, straining their ears to hear the faint pinging sound of the black box.

We can also pray for the safety of every flight, in every country in the world, traveling every day as we go about our lives oblivious to the endless activity in the skies above us.

May their journeys be safe.

About Barbara Mizell

Barbara Mizell began working for the Picayune Item in 1993. She started during the "cut and paste" days of the newspaper, and was the first to create a newspaper page using the computer for the Item. She has served as Composing Supervisor and honorary Religion Editor. Of all the contributions she has made over her 20 years at the Item, she is most proud of the World War II book "The Greatest Generation." Barbara was born and raised in the White Sand Community on Lee Hill, she has also written many short stories about growing up on the hill.

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