When it comes to documentaries, Netflix is the place to be, with headline grabbers like Pamela: A Love Story and Harry & Meghan and odd stories like Gunther’s Millions making for binge-able TV. Their newest doc is MH370: The Plane That Disappeared, which investigates how a Malaysian Airlines plane vanished without a trace and has still never been found. The three-parter arrived last week and features interviews with some of the people who’ve been investigating the disaster, as well as family members of those on board.
The documentary was released on 8th March, exactly nine years to the day after the plane disappeared. MH370 was flying a route from Kuala Lumpur to Malaysia and was heading to Beijing, and apparently crashed somewhere in the Indian Ocean. It was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members, who are all presumed dead, making it one of the worst aviation incidents in history. The resulting search has also been one of the most expensive in the history of aviation, with teams of investigators combing over the southern Indian Ocean, the South China Sea and the Andaman Sea. How and why the plane disappeared has never been determined, and The Plane That Disappeared recounts the evidence and theories that have been proposed so far.
Each episode is around an hour long, and takes an in-depth look at the disturbing mystery, with episode 1 centring on the initial hours and days following the plane going missing. The plane lost contact with people on the ground only 38 minutes after take off, and eventually disappeared from radar screens. Criticism over the lack of communication and information from officials about the disappearance began to mount in the days after, which began to fuel conspiracy theories. Episode 2 continues from this, touching on another Malaysian Airlines flight that crashed that year: MH17, shot down over Ukraine by a Russian missile. This only added more interest and theories about MH370, potentially obfuscating an already difficult investigation. The series concludes with how experts are still searching for closure in the case, and how family members still feel sceptical about the official investigation so far.
The Plane That Disappeared can’t give a definitive answer on what happened that day, but it does give an engrossing look at what is known about one of the biggest international mysteries in modern history, and whether it can ever be resolved. You can watch all three parts now.
For more on documentaries, check out the best documentaries made by women.
