The Plane That Wasn't There: Why We Haven't Found Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (Kindle Single) by Jeff Wise

Author:Jeff Wise [Wise, Jeff]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Yellow Cabin Press
Published: 2015-02-15T07:00:00+00:00

INTERLUDE

A SPECULATIVE SCENARIO

MARCH 8, 2014. 12.15am. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. A line of passengers shuffles down the aisle to their seats, subdued and sleepy. It’s late, and the flight is due to arrive in Beijing at practically the break of dawn. Most of the passengers are Chinese, with a sizable number of Malaysians and Indonesians and a smattering of Indians, Europeans, Australians, New Zealanders, and Americans. Here, for the next six hours, they will be pressed together in the forced comaraderie of late-capitalistic travel drudgery. No one loves taking a redeye.

It appears to be an utterly mundane example of a ritual that plays out tens of thousands times a day in airports on every continent. But if one were aware of the subtlest psychological ripples that can emanate from subconcious gestures, one’s attention would be drawn to three of the passengers in particular.

The first sits in business class, the highest level of service on this flight. A quick-eyed, broad-shouldered man, mid-40s, not tall but physically imposing all the same. He wears a strange half-smile. You can see from his carry-on bag that he is an avid recreational scuba diver, on his way back from a club trip exploring the coral reefs of Southeast Asia. His bag contains a swim mask, a snorkel, and a pair of poney tanks. Only if one were preternaturally perceptive would one notice that the bag also contains not one but three regulators, and they are not of the conventional type. He settles into a window seat and puts the bag on the empty seat beside him. He unzips a pocket, takes out one of the regulators, and stuffs it into the seat pocket in front of him.

Two taller men, about the same age, are coming down the aisle past his seat. Both are well-muscled and carry themselves with the self-confidence of men who prize their physicality. One is shorter and broader; the other has the lanky physique of an elite basketball player. As they pass the first man’s seat, they take no notice of him, but the blond one lifts up the bag with the scuba tank and carries it with him. The quick-eyed man doesn’t seem to notice, and neither does anyone else.

It’s nearly half past midnight when the doors close. The passengers fasten their seat belts, the flight attendants mime along to the safety video, the plane rolls along the taxiway. If there’s a virtue to traveling when most people are already asleep, it’s that there are few delays. Right on schedule, the plane lines up on runway 32R, the engines spool up, and the 777-200ER is airborne, heading north and climbing through the equatorial night.

The lights of Kuala Lumpur glitter below, then fall away. Only a few scattered strings of light mark the small cities and towns of the Malayan peninsula, the darker black of the Malacca Strait to the west. Turning as it climbs, the plane eases to wings level and heads northeast.

Throughout the cabin, passengers sprawl in the abandon of sleep, mouths hanging open, heads pressed against window shades or into balled-up pillows.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.