MH370: The Plane That Disappeared

The title alone—The Plane That Disappeared—feels like it belongs more to a sensational tabloid than a serious documentary, and unfortunately, the content follows suit. Instead of delivering a thoughtful exploration of the tragedy, the series spends an inordinate amount of time wandering through conspiracy theories, often giving them more legitimacy than they deserve. For a story with such a profound impact on the lives of hundreds of grieving families, this approach feels tone-deaf at best and exploitative at worst.


Netflix’s MH370: The Plane That Disappeared takes on the infamous mystery of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which vanished without a trace in 2014. The series explores the tragedy through interviews, archival footage, and expert commentary, while diving into a variety of theories—from plausible explanations to outright conspiracies—about what might have happened to the missing plane.


The series does have moments where it touches on credible theories and presents scientific insights into what might have happened. But these moments are brief, almost an afterthought, as the focus shifts quickly to rabbit holes and conjecture. The result is a docuseries that feels more like a brainstorming session on Reddit than a measured investigation.

Take, for instance, the bizarre amount of screen time devoted to a certain interviewee with a penchant for dramatic theories. This individual suggests that the disappearance of MH370 was orchestrated to distract the world from a Russian invasion. While the series eventually debunks this outlandish claim, it spends so long entertaining it that you’re left wondering if the filmmakers forgot their own point. Could Netflix not find anyone more credible to interview? At times, it seems as though they ran out of experts and just decided to give this guy the microphone because he was available.

The storytelling structure doesn’t help either. By the third episode, the documentary loses its way, much like many other Netflix docuseries. It begins with an intriguing premise, then gradually drifts into tangents and speculative territory, leaving the audience frustrated. If this had been condensed into a tight 90-120 minute feature focused on the facts, it might have been compelling. Instead, it feels like a padded-out production designed more to keep you clicking "Next Episode" than to provide real insights.

What’s especially frustrating is the missed opportunity. The disappearance of MH370 is a deeply tragic and baffling event that deserves careful, unbiased analysis. Instead of digging deeper into data or interviewing more credible experts, the filmmakers seemed more concerned with creating a dramatic narrative. And while they do recreate certain scenes and moments, these are sporadic and fail to deliver the immersive impact they could have had if based more closely on actual evidence.