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The mystery of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370

16 Mar 2014 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In this Sunday’s gospel, Peter, James, and John experienced the mystery of the Transfiguration of Jesus and heard a voice from the heavens that filled them with fear. As the mystery of the disappearance of an airliner over the weekend deepened this week, each passing day confirmed the worst fears of family members and friends that loved ones may be lost forever.As we go to press, the Chinese government said its satellites had spotted several large white objects floating in the ocean that could be parts of the aircraft. The objects are in a location consistent with the flight path of the airline.But caution is called for. Earlier false leads failed to find evidence of the jetliner, leaving experts to puzzle over how a Boeing 777 with 239 people aboard could have vanished without a trace.With so little concrete evidence to go on, aviation experts initially explored a number of plausible scenarios to explain the loss of the plane, and investigators said they could not yet conclusively rule out almost any potential cause, including terrorism, hijacking, crew malfeasance, pilot error, or mechanical failure.International police authorities did say on Tuesday, however, that two passengers known to have used stolen passports to board the disappeared jet on Saturday were unlikely to be linked to terrorist groups, echoing an assessment by the Malaysian police that one of them was a 19-year-old Iranian who wanted to migrate to Germany.The passenger, Pouria Nourmohammadi Mehrdad, who was using a passport that had been stolen from an Austrian man, was traveling to Germany, where he was to meet his mother, said Khalid Abu Bakar, the inspector general of the Malaysian police. “We are in contact with his mother,” Khalid said at a news conference.Homily hint: While the mystery of a missing airline certainly captures attention, an astonishing 2,300 adults and children are reported missing each day in the U.S. Runaways and those with psychiatric problems account for a large percentage of those people. If you want to help, a good place to start would be the website of The National Center of Missing & Exploited Children. Source: An article by Thomas Fuller, Jane Perlez, Alan Cowell, and Eric Schmitt for the New York Times

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Loved ones left adrift in Malaysian 370’s disappearance

20 Apr 2014 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Losing confidence in false authorities is not a bad position from which to discover what the truth is,” PrepareTheWord scripture commentator Alice Camille says in encouraging us to seek the deep truth revealed by the empty tomb this Easter Sunday. As the search for Malaysian Airlines flight 370 moves deep underwater, the loved ones of those aboard the vanished airliner have lost confidence in Malaysian authorities in their search for the truth.Despite millions of dollars and more than a month of searching, the international effort into what happened to Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has found few answers. Australian authorities Monday announced that the aerial search for debris would end and that an unmanned submersible, called the Bluefin 21, would begin slowly building high-resolution maps of the ocean floor, a process that could take months to complete.Most of the passengers on board the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing were Chinese. More than 200 relatives of those passengers continue to meet daily with Malaysian officials at the Lido hotel in the suburbs of Beijing. Steve Wang’s mother was on board. He said the experience has unified passengers’ relatives. “We are not only friends, we are family.”Australian authorities have cautioned that the investigation could take years and that the black box flight data recorders may never be found. Passengers’ loved ones say they will wait at the hotel until they have answers.“There are some obvious mistakes that were made from the beginning and they should find out who is responsible and who should be blamed for it,” said Wang.Homily hint: It is said that humans can bear any loss as long as they can make sense of it. The families and friends of those missing on Malaysian Airlines MH370 have not even received the consolation of knowing how and where—even perhaps if—their loved ones' lives have ended. Keep their pain in your prayers in a special way this Easter season. Source: An article by Shannon Von Sant for VOA News

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For January 4: Mystery of missing plane causes continued pain

28 Dec 2014 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Our gospel for this Sunday’s celebration of the Epiphany speaks of how the magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem in search of the newborn king in order to offer their gifts. King Herod also wanted the child found, though for different reasons. Despite the best search efforts of many nations these past nine months, the remains of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which mysteriously disappeared without a trace on March 8, have yet to be found. Many wonder if they ever will be found.It is said that the Beijing-bound plane went off the radar within a few minutes of its take-off from Kuala Lumpur airport. Soon after, troops were deployed as a part of multinational search mission. However, no traces or debris have been discovered.Despite being the largest and most expensive search in aviation history, there has been no confirmation of any flight debris, resulting in many unofficial theories about its disappearance. On March 24, the Malaysian government, noting that the final location determined by the satellite communication was far from any possible landing sites, concluded that "flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean."At the time of its disappearance, and if the presumed loss of all lives aboard is confirmed, Flight MH370 was the deadliest aviation incident in the history of Malaysia Airlines and the deadliest involving a Boeing 777. While the disappearance continues to baffle researchers, a new report claims that Malaysian authorities neglected the information from British satellite company Inmarsat, which was received in the initial days of the plane's disappearance.Homily hint: In the aftermath of the mysterious disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines plane, “experts” confidently assured the public the plane would be found in a matter of days or weeks. Nine months later, the tragedy serves as a humbling reminder that there are indeed limits to human knowledge and technological know-how. Only God sees and knows all. Source: Articles by International Business Times (Australia) and Wikipedia

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