Har har. But there's a serious question here: The major beats of the ostensibly blockbusting new article were sussed out by a small group of amateur sleuthers within a few weeks of MH370 vanishing. Why did they beat the first thorough airing in a mainstream outlet by 5 years?
Langewiesche's article is a skilled repackaging of what's long been the most plausible theory, but adds little new information. The scoop of the anonymous friend of the pilot Zaharie is valuable, but hardly dispositive about his motive or state of mind.
The New York Post aired this same theory 9 days after MH370 disappeared, complete with suspicion on Zaharie over the co-pilot, and the interpretation of the 40k-foot climb as an attempt to knock out passengers and crew: nypost.com/2014/03/17/mis…
There is indeed a good deal more evidence to back the pilot-suicide theory now.... And there's also more evidence to contradict it: thedailybeast.com/the-atlantics-…
There is no explanation for what happened to MH370 that can't be quickly picked apart. The only defensible take is that it was the work of a malevolent demon bent on mocking the vanity of our pretense to institutional management of epistemic chaos.
The major point of my piece on this 5 years ago was that no one in charge of the MH370 search had given us good reason to be confident they knew what they were talking about. I still think that. theatlantic.com/technology/arc…
The only truly false note in the Langewiesche article is this: "finding the wreckage and the two black boxes may accomplish little.... At best it will answer some relatively unimportant questions"
?????????
Lest it need stating: There is a great deal to be learned from actually finding the plane. Count me among those for whom MH370 is a lesson in how our epistemic status is poor, not rich.
Just to name one seemingly important point we might learn from finding the plane: Where it is, and whether that's the same general area people think. This can still be rationally -- not plausibly, but rationally -- questioned.
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