The story of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, now deemed to have crashed in the vastness of the southern Indian Ocean, has few parallels. Even the Titanic disaster consisted of imaginable horrors with obvious causes. It is extraordinary that 239 people appear to have disappeared off the face of the earth – lost, it seems, in an instant. Equally disturbing is the failure of advanced technology to make such accidents impossible. This reminder of the frailty and fragility of human life – and the unexpectedness of the unexpected – is a humbling moment. What actually happened on board MH370 is too appalling to bear thinking about, and too mystifying. But these very factors have opened up the wellsprings of compassion in countries round the world, a dozen of which are actively