Let’s take stock of where we are…………. lots of expressions of optimism ….. “ping” has become part of our daily vocabulary …….. the airplane flew at an altitude of four to five thousand feet …. the pilot, not the co-pilot, made the last transmission.

The bottom line is that we really don’t know much more than we knew a week ago, maybe even a month ago.  The simple fact is that we still haven’t found the airplane and the investigation hasn’t really started. In fact, we haven’t located any debris.

Media coverage has been cutback.  In the case of at least one of the media outlets, this means that it’s not 24/7, but is now 23/7 (or at least that’s the way it seems).  The platoon of aviation experts and analysts who show up multiple times per hour have been narrowed to a handful.

The Malaysian Government continues to put out bad information or reverse course on information they put out previously, e.g. which pilot spoke the final words to air traffic control.

Overall, other than speculation, we still have no answers to the who, what, when, where, why or how.  Even if the wreckage is located at the bottom of the Indian Ocean, it could be months before the flight data recorder or cockpit voice recorder are recovered and, even if they’re recovered, it is entirely possible that they won’t give us the answers.

The sum total of the foregoing is that it is probable we will never get the answers.  Hope is good.  Optimism….not so much.  At some point in time, MH 370 may be spoken about, not so much as an ongoing investigation, but rather as a mystery….. the who, what, when, where, why and how, never to be answered.