Netflix’s ‘MH370: The Plane That Disappeared’ Tells Us Everything We Heard Before [Review]
The MH370 documentary mostly takes viewers through the conspiracy theories that arose due to the lack of information and answers.
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Netflix’s latest 3-episode documentary, MH370: The Plane That Disappeared, directed by Louise Malkinson attempts to “illustrate” the disappearance of the plane carrying 239 passengers in 2014.
On 8 March 2014, Malaysian Airlines (MAS) Flight 370 disappeared over the South China Sea en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. After months of searches, all 227 passengers and 12 crew members are presumed dead, with the cause of the disappearance still unknown.
Four months later, MAS suffered another tragedy when MH17 was shot down while flying over eastern Ukraine.
Some of the people featured in the documentary, in no particular order, are:
- Jeff Wise – Aviation journalist
- Intan Othman – Wife of MH370 crew member, Mohd Hazrin Mohamed Hasnan
- Grace Nathan – Her mother was on MH370
- Jiang Hui – His mother was on MH370
- Danica Weeks – Her husband was on MH370
- Ghyslain Wattrelos – His wife and two children were on MH370
- Blaine Gibson – the self-styled adventurer who found the plane debris
- Florence De Changy – investigative journalist at France’s Le Monde
What to expect
The first episode starts off well enough until the aviation journalist Jeff Wise comes in. While it was clear that he was positing a theory of what could have happened, it could come across wrongly to most viewers.
Watching this show requires some comprehension ability and the ability to separate fact from fiction with the little bit of evidence made known to the public.
It is due to the lack of information we have that I think the show’s title should be changed to better reflect what it is: a compilation of conspiracy theories regarding the missing plane. It doesn’t come across as a fully factual documentary to me.
Personally, I believe the show’s creators should have focused more on the families of victims as this would give a bit more credence to the already ‘shaky’ show. That said, I’m also aware that the other families might have refused to appear in the show and it’s also cruel to ask them to relive the experience.
I could feel their anguish and disappointment when the searches yielded no answers and they were subjected to conspiracy theories from every side.
I admire the bravery shown by some of them in the search for answers when all other channels have failed them. I hope irresponsible parties do not mislead them in their desperate quest for answers.
Skip or watch?
I do not recommend families and friends of MH370 passengers watch this show. For those who plan to watch, I think it’s better for them to familiarize themselves with the news coverage about the incident before watching the show in order to be able to separate fact from fiction.
At the very least, they should get a rough idea of the chronology of events such as what evidence was collected and the conclusion made about it. Without doing some homework beforehand, a viewer’s judgement might be coloured while watching the documentary.
Generally, it’s an ok watch when we focus on the families of the victims. The documentary featuring both facts and conspiracies in an attempt to provide a balanced view just muddied up the already murky waters.
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