Response to MH370

Inspired by the MH370 incident. In no means disrespecting the victims of this somber event. Hope I'm not offending anyone. It simply sparked me to write these two fictional scenarios because up till today, I don't think anyone really knows what happened to MH370. 

Version 1

“I’ll settle for one-fifty,” said the Captain, “And the rest of the crew gets one each. Deal?”

“Deal.” And the line went off.

239. It was surprising how many people want to just ‘disappear’ from the realms of the Earth. “Is it that difficult for anyone to disappear into thin air?” The Captain wondered. The tickets to this flight weren’t cheap at all. He felt compelled to leave the pilot seat to see the boarding passengers. Why did they need such obscurity?

Erasing these unnecessary thoughts, the Captain ran through the plan for the twenty-fourth time in his head: Fly the plane as per normal, wait for signal to cut off communications, ignore attempts of contact, follow the script provided if necessary, land the plane at targeted meeting point, and alight with passengers. Simple and straightforward. Doesn’t matter if GPS is installed within the plane. Doesn’t matter if the blackbox ever gets retrieved. No dead bodies will be found because there will not be any. If the plan ever gets cracked, the passengers would have safely made their way into the shadows already.

As nervous as the Captain was, he was also excited to be part of this big plan. He haven’t felt this way since his very first flight. By the end of this he would be more than one and a half million richer. The only reason why he agreed to this was because it meant that he would not need to fly an airplane ever again. He had no baggage; no family, an unsubstantial amount of friends, and a few debts he would not mind leaving behind. Given the bad economy, it did not take a lot to convince his young and ambitious crew either.  

The plan went on without any glitches and for no reason at all, the Captain announced, “Good night, Malaysian three-seven-zero," and then put on the yellow life jacket that equipped him with a new life.

Version 2

“I’ll settle for two mil.,” said the Captain, “Deal?”

“Deal.” And the line went off.

239. It was crazy how many people would spend money to take a suicide flight. “Rich people are sure screwed up,” The Captain thought. Well, to be fair, he was not that sane himself. But he needed the money for Sarah’s surgery. “Better me than her”, he was definite about this.

Bringing himself back to reality, the Captain ran through the plan for the twenty-fourth time in his head. Fly the plane as per normal, wait for signal to cut off communications, ignore attempts of contact, follow the script provided if necessary, and dive. Simple and straightforward. Doesn’t matter if GPS is installed within the plane. Doesn’t matter if the blackbox ever gets retrieved. If the plan ever gets cracked, our lives would have completely disengaged from our dead bodies already.

The plan went on without any glitches and to signal the finale, the Captain announced, “Good night, Malaysian three-seven-zero," and then made one last prayer for Sarah before the black sea swallowed the vehicle into its trudging currents.