The missing flight MH370 is now a fading memory. Will the search ever be resumed? I hope so. But not in my name or for my sake – that is, as a family member of a passenger on that flight.

I say this to all who get in touch with the MH families with information connected to the search: let the families be, or at least, don’t depend on them to move the cogs of governments. Connect with the authorities – furthering knowledge, and improving safety in civil aviation are enduring benefits that might persuade them.

It is now more than six and a half years since MH370 vanished from the skies. The search was wound up for want of ‘credible new information’ that would pinpoint the location of the aircraft – a condition that, given the circumstances, was designed to bury any future calls for a resumption of the search.

Using MH370 families as a rallying point for any movement for a resumption of search has run its course and is probably no longer productive. Cold facts and objective science that resonate with the scientific and technological establishment, the authorities in Malaysia (and China and Australia), experts, and corporations like Ocean Infinity, is the key.

I have made peace with my personal loss. I am now neither triggered by the idea of unfinished closure or personal anger at what happened. My interest in the search after the initial couple of years of the plane’s disappearance was prompted by a concern for systemic and technologically assured aviation safety in the future. There was the search for truth and justice sustained by a notion that pursuing the search is at its core.

I believe that the quest to find the plane, and the insights that may emerge from it is in the larger public interest, and all effort to unearth the plane and the truth is best approached from this plank. We are talking billions of air travellers, and many, many corporations and governments dependent on them who need to pay heed. The MH370 families make for a human interest angle, a powerful one at that, but the search question needs to go beyond that and appeal to the ‘what’s in it for me/ us?’ question from passengers, service providers, corporations, expert groups and the scientific establishment, and governments to win any support.

I suspect many MH families have, like me, made a choice to look ahead rather than suspend their lives and make its resumption contingent on finding the plane. My sympathies are with them. It is the pragmatic thing to do. Their silence, to my mind, does not signify loss of interest in the search or some betrayal of a cause, or even rudeness. Many may not have the ability to go beyond basic concepts and probably believe that the science behind the search and merits of an approach deserve a more appropriate audience than the affected families. Do keep in mind that the families have received many approaches from people with dubious claims regarding the whereabouts of the plane based on questionable science or mischief over the years, and perhaps do not wish to be led down that path again. (Sadly and understandably, perhaps all claims end up tarred with a similar brush as a consequence). All of these are, of course, my conjectures.

We know by now that most countries, corporations and institutions don’t care or don’t wish to be reminded that a plane is missing. I don’t know why. Embarrassment? Guilt? Helplessness? It makes passengers nervous? Bad for business confidence? It’s just a small inconsequential blip in the march to a technological morrow? So, it is ultimately on Malaysia, Ocean Infinity, and others that have responsibility and / or the resources.