26 Mar 2014

The worst air tragedy in the history of Malaysia

It's been a heart breaking two weeks for Malaysians in general- our national carrier MH370 - on a routine flight to Beijing in China,suddenly lost contact with the control tower. There were 239 passengers on board, 152 of them Chinese nationals going home to China. At first everyone thought the plane had crashed in the South China Sea because that's where we last had radar communication with the plane. It was supposed to have arrived in Beijing at 6.30am. 

After almost 24 hours of searching, the military finally admitted they had a blip on their primary radar around 2.45 am 8 March and it was flying west towards the Straits of Malacca. Even then they were not sure whether it was MH 370 - it could be any commercial plane since all the primary radar recorded was a commercial plane flying through its airspace. 

Today is the 18th day. 26 countries are involved in the search and rescue effort. However until today all we know is that it veered west towards the Indian Ocean and then down towards the southern corridor where all you can sea is large tracts of ocean- an immense body of water, unbroken by land. The sea here is harsh and uncompromising and searching for the plane is like searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack. 

There are satellite images of what seemed like debris spread around a certain area but so far nothing has been found. For one thing the weather is not being agreeable - rough waves of up to 10 feet or more with strong winds prevent the search ships to stay too long. If the plane had indeed crashed here, there would be no survivors. Apart from the cold the ocean here is just too remote, too deep to even send divers down. The depth of the ocean in this part is at least 2 miles or 4km. 

The question that is on everyone's mind is - what happened to the plane? Why did it divert from its route? Was it a failed hijacking? Sabotage? An act of terrorism? Or simply an electrical failure that led to a fire in the cockpit, thus putting the two pilots unconscious ? In spite of help from the world's best aviation experts, satellites from so many countries, nobody knows what actually happened. We are as perplexed as the US, China and Britain . 

Meanwhile families are waiting in vain. The Families of the Chinese passengers react violently and angrily, accusing our government of hiding the facts/ truth or not being open enough. Some are seen crying loudly , shouting at the MAS personnel sent to look after them and even throwing water bottles at them. Emotions run high. It is understandable in a way. They are frustrated, after waiting for weeks to find an answer, yet there is none. One man just said, " We want to know where they are. If they are dead, we want to see the bodies." But what can we say? I put myself in our government's shoes and see there really is nothing they can do except go on searching, spending hundreds of thousands and maybe later, millions to look for this plane that has gone missing. Speculations abound. So many theories fly all over the social media, even some saying that it is pilot suicide. That was a suggestion from a most unlikely source- the US no less. But to me it is too far fetched and it looks like the investigators are grasping at straws! 

Here in Malaysia, in the social media, words of condolences pour in. Finally on 24th March, Datok Seri Najib the PM announced that the plane ended it's journey somewhere in the South Indian Ocean, and that most probably there were no survivors. 

Today's press conference just confirms that the satellite images showing hundreds of debris is the most likely area where the plane crashed . But even then not one debris has been identified properly. My heart aches every time I see the images of the passengers and crew. It is not a story one reads about in the news anymore. It is closer to home than I'd like. There are people my neighbours know and loved. A friend's daughter just confirmed that her best friend Dina and her mother was on that plane. They were going shopping in Beijing. She and Dina had met for a dinner date just hours before they went to Beijing and had talked about children. 
My neighbour of two years, who lives opposite me at the corner house, lost her nephew and his wife. Their two children are now orphans. There are so many similar stories. One stewardess had a husband, also a steward on that plane. She is expecting her second child. Her first is 3 plus and she asked her mummy ,"Where is papa?" The mother answers with tears in her eyes that Papa went to work but Papa's plane rosak (  had trouble) and now Papa has gone to Heaven. The little girl asks again, " But I want to see Papa.." " Well, we have to pray hard so that one day we too can go to Heaven and meet Papa." 

Watching this scene on the news I cry silently. 
" Cry not for them...
They have gone away to a far away land
Where flowers bloom all day long
And the Sun and Moon are one. 
Cry not for them...
They are lying at peace
Deep in the waves
And the cascading falls
Gently keep them in thrall. "

Kat 24/3/14 

1 comment:

♥●• İzdihër •●♥ said...

We are also worried and praying :(