Two weeks ago, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 took off from Kuala Lumpur, bound for Beijing.  Only a flight of a few hours, it seemed like any other flight.  It would never arrive.

 In the wake of the aircraft’s disappearance, a massive international search effort began to determine what happened to the plane.  As time went on, things that were learned became progressively stranger.  The plane’s transponder, used by air traffic controllers and other planes to coordinate the plane’s movements, was turned off.  The plane apparently changed altitude multiple times and made several turns.  Multiple sightings turned out to be false.  Debris fields were found that were not linked to the plane.  It was even learned that the plane was still flying some hours after it vanished.

 The mystery has experts and average people all around the world theorizing about what happened, and students at Potomac Falls are no exception.

 “The plane probably fell due to a fuel line malfunction, but there is no longer a sure fire way to track it,” said junior Connor Fagan.  While technical failure has been suggested repeatedly, others believe that a more sinister plot was in motion here, possibly linked to terrorism.

 “I think it fell in the ocean.  It might have been bombed,” said junior Sarah Adam.  Currently, authorities have stated that the plane crashed somewhere in the Indian Ocean, and that everyone is most likely dead.  However, this tragic theory has yet to be verified, as wreckage from the plane has yet to be found.  Even with more ships converging on the area, the truth has yet to be revealed about what caused this mystery, and with the search effort taking so long to find the plane and determine the cause, authorities have been criticized.  Suggestions have also been made about what they could do better.

 “They started trying to look for the plane using the transponder, but it was turned off.  It makes no sense to design transponders that can be deactivated,” said Fagan.  Others believe that the search effort has done the best it could with the difficult situation.

 “They already have done a lot.  They tracked it using satellites,” said Adam. “But countries are not cooperating.  It makes me sad that there are not better ways to track planes.”

 Such a mystery has also affected what people think of air travel.

 “Don’t fly on planes where you can turn off your only chance of being found,” said Fagan.

 The recent finding of debris has given hope that the plane might finally have been found.  Still, people remain cautious about prospects of finding it.

 “[They will probably] find it in two weeks or so,” said Adam.  Others are a little more pessimistic.

 “They’ll maybe find it 20,000 leagues under the sea,” said Fagan