Heed the lessons missing flight has taught us

This year has been one of military and political crises, with some involving direct confrontations between major powers. Perhaps the only exception is the disapperance of Malaysia Airlines flight 370. Despite being far removed from "hard politics", it brought the world together in an unprecedented global search mission.

Although the disappearance of a large modern plane on a routine commercial flight is still unbelievable, the incident broke our illusion of being able to locate anything with the help of modern technologies. What caused the almost impossible to happen? Could more flights vanish?

Twenty-six countries used satellites, airplanes, ships, submarines and other modern devices in the first round of the search mission that lasted a month. And as the search progressed from one day to another, relatives and friends of the 239 passengers and crew members started losing hope of their survival.