How does a 300-ton Boeing 777 jet completely vanish into thin air?  That’s the question on the minds of authorities looking into the strange disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, as officials are now admitting that the plane may never be found.

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Malaysian authorities have tried all avenues.  They’ve followed promising leads down dead end roads. They’ve organized ships, submarines, helicopters, the military, even private jets to search large sections of the Indian Ocean to no avail.  They even heard “pings” deep in the ocean over the weekend that were consistent with the sound of a black box “beacon” from a missing jet, but even those sounds have since disappeared.

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Exactly 1 month ago today, the Malaysian jumbo jet disappeared on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing after its transponders, which make the plane visible to commercial radar, were shut off. Military radar picked up the jet an hour later on the other side of the Malay peninsula. Authorities say that until then its “movements were consistent with deliberate action by someone on the plane,” but have not ruled out anything, including mechanical error.

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Police are investigating the pilots and crew for any evidence that they might have hijacked or sabotaged the plane. The backgrounds of the passengers, two-thirds of whom were Chinese, have been checked by local and international investigators, but nothing suspicious has been uncovered.

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In a rushed and botched attempt to create closure, the Malaysian government announced to the families that it was safe to assume the plane had crashed and all passengers on board had died. However, distraught family members refused to accept that theory without even a trace of evidence that the plane had indeed crashed.

Assessments by Malaysian and Australian officials underscore the lack of knowledge authorities have about what happened on Flight 370.  It also points to a dreaded but likely scenario that the fate of the Boeing 777 and the 239 people on board might remain a mystery forever.

“Investigations may go on and on and on. We have to clear every little thing,” Inspector General Khalid Abu Bakar said. “At the end of the investigations, we may not even know the real cause. We may not even know the reason for this incident.”

Searchers are still scouring the waters, but their optimism is “more cautious” now, said U.S. Navy Cmdr. William Marks. “As hours pass, our optimism is fading away, ever so slightly.”

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