On July 2, 1937, at around midnight, Amelia Earhart and fellow aviator Fred Noonan embarked in a Lockheed Electra from Lae—the second largest city in Papua New Guinea—en route to Howland Island, a tiny desolate island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. At 8:43 a.m. that morning, the USCGC Itasca, stationed near Howland, lost radio contact with the Electra.

For the next 16 days, as the US Navy scoured the South Pacific in search of the plane, the media covered each and every development. During that time frame, according to research through ProQuest, the New York Times published at least 12 front-page stories about the search, the Boston Globe 16 stories, and the New York Herald Tribune 26.

A rash of theories about the disappearance arose—from the plane crashing into the Pacific to landing on nearby Gardner Island. Everyone had an opinion, and the media was more than willing to share them. On July 15, the New York Herald Tribune ran the headline, “Woman Psychic Asserts Amelia Earhart Is Safe.”

This should all sound too familiar. The search for Flight 370—the missing Malaysian passenger plane bound for Beijing—has reached a tragic conclusion, with many questions left unanswered. After a 16-day search effort that involved two dozen nations and more than three million square miles, the Malaysian authorities announced: “We have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH370 has been lost and that none of those on board survived. … We must now accept all evidence suggests the plane went down in the Southern Indian Ocean.”

As with the Earhart disappearance, the media frantically covered this missing plane. Everyone, both qualified and unqualified, seemed to have a theory—a cockpit fire, hijacking, plane malfunction, sabotage—and the media eagerly published and broadcasted many of them. News outlets examined the evidence (such as stolen passports, a potential oil slick, and aircraft simulators), and each new possible lead constituted “Breaking News” for CNN. The media also acutely focused on the grieving families of passengers.

There’s also been much commentary, ironically coming from the media, on the media’s handling of the story—particularly directed at CNN. The harshest critics argue that by its endless coverage, certain newscasts have cinematized a tragedy to bolster ratings or diverted focus from more “newsworthy” stories such as the Syrian crisis or the geopolitical turmoil surrounding Crimea.

These criticisms of coverage of Flight 370 hold some weight. A vanished airplane is a spectacular event—meant for films and books—that sells newspapers and glues eyes to screens. After the plane went missing, CNN’s primetime ratings jumped 68 percent over the year's average; the BBC’s reporting generated more traffic to its website than any news story since the 2011 Japanese tsunami. The uptick in numbers allowed the media to capitalize on an extraordinary event without as much consideration for the story’s news value.