People had a rough idea where Air France Flight 447 was when it went down, and it still took them two years to find it. No one has even a faint idea of where MH370 crashed, making the chances of finding it at all very, very, slim.
The ocean is a shockingly massive place which is a fact that Wise would discount in favor of some fantastically absurd notion that Russia somehow snuck an aircraft all the way from Malaysia to anywhere else without being spotted is ridiculous.
Unfortunately, he's going to view all this exposure as an affirmation of his theory instead of a confirmation that he needs to seek professional help.
Again, its location was known. It did not deviate from its flight path. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AF_447_path-notext.sv...
Firstly, there is no compelling counter-theory. The consensus view (the plane turned off its flight path for an unknown reason, flew in a mostly unknown direction for an unknown period of time and then crashed somewhere in the Indian ocean) has so many thing that are unknown that any theory offering certainty is attractive.
Secondly, the "Russians stole the plane because of something to do with some Ukrainians" fits the current political narrative very well. Confirmation bias means people are likely consider it even when they probably shouldn't.
Thirdly... maybe it true. Anyone have a better theory? (See how easy it is?)
Theory B) Plane crashed at unexpected location in ocean that covers 3/4 of earth surface.
I know which one the media outlets that are booking this guy are going to be pushing come Monday. It has all the right juicy bits in it. And the other one is kind of bland.
You'd have to reprogram its transponder and slap-on a coat of paint anyhow, so why not just hire one from ILFC through a couple of proxy companies? Much easier and less risky. Operate it on routine 'cargo' services until needed...
The incident runs counter to the carefully managed, or at least well understood framing that people apply to the world at large through their lived experience, so seeking a 'human' explanation is somehow more comforting.
So we don't know what happened, but based on that alone it seems like something fishy.
[1] http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/02/jeff-wise-mh370...
That means that everytime someone said what they thought happened and it turned out to be wrong it looks like a conspiracy. People denied things because they said something different earlier, and they didn't want to appear wrong.
It's fairly likely that foul play on the aircraft itself was involved, but it's pretty unlikely that there was a multiple-government coverup involving Malaysia, China and Australia.
Additionally, when criminal wrongdoing is suspected, the authorities routinely lie about what they know about the case, in hopes that the criminals would operate under wrong model of their knowledge and thus be at disadvantage, and also they would be able to distinguish somebody genuinely knowing something about the matter from somebody just watching the news.
YET, MH370 definitely is FOUL PLAY, and not an "accident" or even series of accidents aboard.
The only thing i can think of is that the predominant global authorities of our time (US & anglosphere) DON'T WANT this plane to be found. Leading a side show into nothingness (or vacant areas) would be easy to do, especially if you KNOW where the plane really is. Question is WHY?
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_MALAYSIA_MISSING_P...
Give it a few months and I'm guessing we'll see a story about how well his "social experiment" worked.
