TOW #22: "Into Thin Air", Hannah Beech and Nikhil Kumar

In a world in which any phone can be tracked, and people can easily be spied on, how is it that a plane can go missing? Ever since March 8^th, many countries have been searching large areas that relate to many experts’ theories of where Malaysia Airlines flight 370 could be. Hannah Beech and Nikhil Kumar wrote “Into Thin Air” in The New York Times to question how it is possible for a jetliner to get lost with today’s technology. Beech and Kumar use analogies and references to achieve their purpose.

            To understand how unusual it is for the plane to be lost with today’s technology, Beech and Kumar use analogies to explain the perplexity. They describe, “The world’s intelligence agencies can watch and listen to millions of us as we go about our lives. Even us nonspies have plenty of tracking technology at our disposal. Pull up a web browser and with a few keystrokes we can locate our lost iPhones, track satellites as they circle the earth, use Google Maps to explore far-off lands.” By describing the easily accessible technology that is available to a common person that can track even the simplest things, a reader than can understand how odd it is for the plane to be missing. The use of allusions allows Beech and Kumar to ask the question, how is it that experts are not able to locate a large plane?

            Beech and Kumar also reference aviation experts to further their questioning. They quote Robert Benzon, who spent 25 years as an aircraft-accident investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, “In my business, there’s what they call a tombstone mentality – to get things done, you have to have blood or dead people.” Benzon is referring to why planes, including Malaysia Airlines flight 370 do not have the most advanced technology on board. By referencing Benzon, Beech and Kumar have the ability to question why the passengers’ safety onboard airplanes is put after economic concerns, even after events like 9/11. If it is possible to improve the safety of people why would it not be done? This helps explain the need for questioning by Beech and Kumar to not only explain why this plane can not be found, but also improve requirements that may prevent a situation like this from ever occurring again.

            It is hard to believe that with all of the technology readily available that experts were able to lose a plane. Hannah Beech and Nikhil Kumar use analogies and references in “Into Thin Air” to question how it is possible for a plane to be lost. Not only do they achieve this purpose, but they also open the idea of making requirements that would prevent an event like this from reoccurring.