Photo © Mel Zhao

In the shadow of the mysterious events surrounding Malaysian Flight 370, we would do well to remember the discomforting truth in what Helen Keller discovered and wrote:

{ The idea of } “Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”

Everything about living involves an element of risk and the commitment to trust. These twin towers will never be destroyed. If either challenges you, I promise to write more in my future articles about risking and the ability to, and meaning of trust. But for now let’s review what we’ve learned about security. We have all been raised and comforted with the beliefs that better, smarter, wiser minds than ours are watching over things to keep us safe. They formulate our medications, properly adjudicate our crimes, lawfully watch over our investments as they would their own, represent us in government, collect only relevant information in defense of our country, and most recently, fly us to our destination surrounded by the most advanced technology. We further comfort ourselves in believing if something untoward happens, smarter minds than our will work cooperatively together and protect our interests. In the words of Walt Disney, “Welcome to fantasyland.”

The events of Malaysian Air 370 have revealed several realities, some we knew, and some this seasoned international traveler never had any idea until now:

• Transponders can be manually turned off in flight at the whim of the pilot

• Pilots at will can permanently turn off the oxygen to the passenger compartment

• Passengers know less about their pilots than someone in the next lane on the freeway

• The cost of advance aviation can be reduced by ordering lower qualities of surveillance software and tracking technology making it more difficult to find us once we leave our schedule course of flight

• Cockpit voice recordings of pilots conversations have been limited to 30 minutes in favor of pilots privacy secured through lobbying by Airline Pilots Association

• In the advent of a rogue crew who chooses to go zombie, autonomous, non-cancelling satellite uplinking technology to replace black boxes still fails to be installed in modern aircraft as a cost cutting measure, only to require spending 10,000 times more searching for those boxes in the now famous 40 country, 34 ships and hundreds of aircraft “Needle in the Haystack” recovery

• Just because a company or country can afford advance aviation technology doesn’t mean they know how to manage, maintain, or recover it

• Just because you have allies and friends doesn’t mean they will fully cooperate with you

• Two year old stolen passports are valid at some international airports

I’m sure I’m overlooking other horrible facts. Am I the only one? The details coming out of this tragedy make me more than angry, they require me to think ten times over how I go about my airline travel and what is sure to be new citizen group’s demand of airplane manufactures and airlines. For now, if a USA carrier isn’t flying there neither am I.