With fully 77% of the public following the story, there is a tendency to believe missing flight MH 370 probably did not crash
The “unfathomed mystery” of missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH 370 has gone to the heart of the public imagination; partly because advanced technology makes the chance of a plane disappearing so slim, partly because flying is considered to be so safe.
The plane has been missing for 12 days, and as each day goes by the theories become more and more elaborate. But probably the simplest explanation – that the flight just crashed – people tend not to believe.
Fully 77% are following the story very (32%) or fairly (45%) closely, and by 42-33% the public tend to say the flight probably did not crash.
For a puzzle so far from being solved, surprisingly few (25%) say they don’t know whether the plane probably did or did not crash.
Initially, twelve hours after disappearing, the plane was thought to have crashed in Vietnamese waters due to reports of a giant oil slick and a column of smoke. By the second day of the search, fears of terroristm arose from the discovery that two of the passengers on board had fake passports. But by day eight – Saturday – ideas changed completely as it was confirmed the plane’s communications systems had been turned off, and the jet had apparently flown for another six hours after contact was lost.
Image: Getty
