As this is written, search aircraft are back searching the Southern Indian Ocean, their goal to pinpoint some of the wreckage prieviously spotted from the air and from space over the previous search days. Until those efforts bear fruit, there's not a lot more to add to the picture of the aircraft's last flight. But the pause in news gives time for reflection.
Although the pilot of MH370 has had an exemplary 18 year career with the airline, recent revelations have unearthed some suggestions that all was not well with him. Aside from the already well documented issues of his separation from his wife, the telephone call from the flightdeck to a mystery woman on the day of the fatal flight and the questions surrounding the deletion of log data from his flight simulator, some other disquieting information has surfaced.
It also appears that his relationship with the new woman in his life was not as solid as it could have been, according to an un-named friend of the captain, and his state of mind on the day of the disappearance was considered as unsuitable for flying by that same friend.
The friend's feeling that it wasn't beyond the bounds of reality that Captain Zaharie might have been tempted to take the 777 for a last joyride before ending his life, could be all the motive required for the tragedy that ensued.
Although the joyride scenario is speculation only, the circumstances around his personal life appear to be factual and the cockpit cellphone call and file deletions are a matter of record. But unless the pilot left a note as to his mindset to be discovered in the wreckage - something that is very unlikely given a situation that strongly suggests somebody trying their best to obscure the circumstances of the 777's disappearance - we will never know what they are.
An interesting, if deeply sad, issue is the behaviour of the bereaved. The clamour from those families and friends has been for the Malaysian Government and the airline to be more forthcoming with information. The expressions of rage over what they have seen as deliberate attempts by the Malaysian authorities to hide information have been terrible to witness.
Yet when the airline and government spokespeople announced that the unthinkable was true and that the aircraft was indeed down in the Southern Indian Ocean with the loss of all on board, the report was met with disbelief and even more expressions of rage. In this environment, the Malaysian government and MAS are damned if they do and damned if they don't.
A number of those interviewed flatly refused to accept that the radar-backed evidence of the obvious was a valid confirmation of the crash, and that only physical aircraft wreckage or human remains would be proof enough.
A peculiarly perverse symptom of what is beginning to resemble collective madness among the bereaved, was that in order to ensure they were the first to hear the awful news, those who the authorities were not able to reach in person or by phone call, were texted the news.
As soon as it became known, the reaction was to rage about how inappropriate texting was, despite the fact that if it hadn't happened that way, the first that some of the difficult-to-reach families would have heard of the bad news would have been from the media. And that doesn't bear thinking about.
As I said, damned if you do, damned if you don't.
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