Weekly news - Missing Flight MH370

The most extraordinary news of the last week was undoubtedly that of the (still) missing Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 that vanished without warning or indication over the sea between Kuala Lumper and Beijing.

The whole story has all the components of a genuinely inexplicable puzzle of the kind that in our increasingly information-heavy, demystified world, is stark by its very opacity.

Opinions and theories on anything and everything are deafeningly expounded, even if cynicism and apathy are often set at the loudest volume, so an event of this baffling magnitude provides a jarring jolt of silence amidst the general tinnitus of views.

In the vacuum of easy explanation there are of course all kinds of frenzied speculation, most notably revolving around the two passengers travelling with false passports (which, reputedly, isn't all that uncommon in Southern Asia), who, it now transpires, purchased them through a shady Iranian associate. Reports of oil slicks and floating 'life rafts' have been explored and discounted, and notions as to the Boeing 777's safety performance resoundly debunked.

All we can really take from the incident at this conjectural stage is a revitalised perspective on our psychological relationship with flying itself. Everything about the experience of flight has been carefully stage-managed to sedate and mollify those flying; we are encouraged to think little more about the whole event than what inflight movies might be available, or whether we'll have enough spare time, money or luggage space to cram in any duty free goods.

Whereas, an event such as this, whether the plane did disintegrate mid-air, suffer some kind of terrorist hijacking, or fall victim to pilot error (as was found to be predominantly the case in the Air France Flight 447 incident in 2009), really should throw cold water onto the lethargic faces of all those to whom the activity of flying has become as passe and ambivalent as walking to the local shop to buy milk.

For truly, flying is an incredibly overwhelming experience; the phenomenal upthrust and velocity propelling you and several hundred tons of steel skywards to soar above the clouds at incomprehensible speeds. It is as close as we are very often likely to to get to transcendence, and tragic events such as the last week's should serve as a healthy reminder as to the fragility of the human condition alongside the superlative heights of human achievement.