Just like the sudden disappearance of Flight MH370, the investigation into where the missing Malaysia Airline plane could possibly be is completely unprecedented. While planes have crashed or disappeared without warning before, Flight MH370 lost contact with air traffic controllers almost two weeks ago—and as of Tuesday, authorities still have no idea what happened to the plane.

Utilizing what is believed to be the longest and largest-ever multinational air-sea search, investigators are combing through an area of almost three million square miles looking for debris. Since this process is so slow-going, families are desperate for any clues as to what happened to their loved ones aboard the flight. But are investigators and reporters going too far in their quest to

wfind answers?

With all of the satellites and communication devices that are in place to make sure that planes don’t just fall off the face of the earth, it’s almost eerie how little information authorities have to go off of as they search for the Malaysia Airlines flight. But just because there isn’t a whole lot of information doesn’t mean that people should jump to conclusions about what happened.

Case in point—in the days after MH370’s transponder signal was lost at 1:30 a.m. on March 8, one of the theories was that the plane had been hijacked by someone on board. Malaysian authorities and amateur sleuths alike began looking into the backgrounds of the pilots, the crew and the passengers onboard.

One of the first pieces of information to surface was the fact that two Iranian passengers boarded the flight using stolen passports. This led some news organizations to question the motives of these two passengers, with one CNN headline claiming that this discovery revealed, “possibility of terrorism in missing flight.”

While analyzing the potential motives of the people aboard flight MH370 might help authorities determine what happened to the flight, how effective would this be in helping them find exactly where the plane crashed? It’s not like potential terrorists would have exact locations of where they would crash a plane into the ocean lying around their house.

Some of the investigations into crew members’ lives make a little more sense. This past week, investigators confiscated a homemade flight simulator from the home of the plane’s captain, Zaharie Shah, to look at the types of flights he practiced at home. If Shah did use his flight simulator to, say, practice landing on a small island in the ocean, it might help investigators narrow down where Flight MH370 could be.

Yet the news reports on Shah delve even deeper into his personal life—one eerie New York Daily News article showed video of Shah going through security before he boarded Flight MH370. Other news sites have begun digging up information on Shah’s daughter and other family members.  Why is this necessary? Media organizations need to more critically evaluate whether the information they are providing is helpful, or unnecessary and potentially harmful.

While people are desperate for information, it doesn’t mean that investigators and reporters should exploit that desire. It just ends up hurting family members who have to hear personal information about their loved ones blasted all over the news, when all they want are answers. News sites need to remember to keep the focus on the search for Flight MH370, rather than on the personal lives of crew members and passengers.