A campaign video has been released promising a whistleblower reward in an attempt to find the truth, the plane and the passengers. Courtesy: YouTube/Sunny Min
THE messages were from a 10-year-old girl's breaking heart.
"Mummy, are you o.k? Mummy, wish you is o.k in MH370 aeroplane. I wish you would come back my home. We are waiting you to come home. Remember to reply me. I am your daughter."
It was 10 days after MH370 vanished completely without trace and Foong Wai Yueng's 10-year-old daughter was desperately missing her mother.
On her equally heartbroken father's mobile phone she sent a series of messages to her mother, begging her to come home.
Hoping against hope, Lee Khim Fatt, also sent his wife, a fight steward, a message three days after the plane went missing: "Dear, what time is ur arrival? Call me when u arrived, I c u at gate 8".
Devoted mum ... MH370 flight steward Foong Wai Yueng and her daughter. Source: Supplied
Sunday marks 100 days since MH370 went missing and Foong and the 238 others on board MH370 have still not come home.
No-one knows where they are, what happened to them or why they, along with the Boeing 777-200 aircraft they were on, disappeared without trace.
Authorities say they are sure the Malaysian Airlines plane plunged into the Southern Indian Ocean, somewhere along a massive arc that covers 60,000 square kilometres of inhospitable and freezing ocean. But, it seems, they have no idea where in that vast section of ocean, the plane is resting with so many souls on board.
MH370: No accident, say authors
Families are now in a dreadful limbo. They can't hold memorial services because they don't know what happened, they are heartbroken and as they reach 100 days of anguish, hoping and waiting they are becoming increasingly angry with authorities. They want answers and they want briefings and most of all they want transparency.
Happy couple ... Foong Wai Yueng and her husband Lee Khim Fatt Source: Supplied
One group of families, fed up with what they say is a lack of transparency, has set up a public fundraising drive to raise $5 million to pay for a whistleblower and an investigator. If authorities can't find anything and won't tell them anything, they will do it themselves, says Sarch Bjac, whose soulmate Philip Wood was a passenger.
Back in April searchers were confident that four pings, detected by an underwater search vehicle, about 1600km off Perth, were coming from the plane's black box and were equally confident they were searching in the right place.
Perth mother of two, Danica Weeks, thought it was only a matter of time, probably weeks, before the plane was found.
She started preparing herself emotionally, sorting through photos and memorabilia, getting things ready to hold a memorial service for her beloved husband, whom she calls Paulie.
Still hopeful ... Danica Weeks is still waiting for physical evidence that her husband, Paul, is gone. Picture: 60 Minutes Source: Supplied
As she readied herself for what would be a heartbreaking day of goodbyes, she was hit by a tonne of bricks — on May 29, 83 days into the search, authorities announced the pings they heard were not from the black box. They were no closer to finding the plane and indeed were further away. The next phase of the intensive undersea search is not due to begin until August.
Mrs Weeks has put plans for the memorial on hold.
"I just can't do it. I am not prepared until they find something," she says. "I wont be moving on until I have something concrete."
And she intends, through her grief, to ensure that authorities keep working to find out the truth. Anything less would disrespect Paul, a mining engineer who was on his way to a job in Mongolia, and all the others on board.
"I am not giving up on him until we have piece of evidence and I won't be going away until they tell the truth, until someone starts talking. At first I thought they were totally incompetent, now I think they are hiding something."
Looking for wreckage ... Co-pilot and Squadron Leader Brett McKenzie of the Royal New Zealand Airforce (RNZAF) helps to look for MH370. Picture: Greg Wood Source: Getty Images
All Ms Weeks and the other families want is some certainty, to know what the investigators know.
They begged for the release of the Inmarsat satellite data, which was used to calculate that the plane continued flying for six hours, after it was last detected on radar, and ended in the southern Indian Ocean.
It was finally released on May 27 but families say it is 47 pages of figures and doesn't include everything they need to have it independently analysed by their own experts.
Malaysia's Defence and acting Transport Minister Hishamuddin Hussein, who has become the public face of the search, did not respond to News Corporation's repeated requests this week for an interview.
No sign ... Malaysia's Minister of Transport Hishamuddin Hussein takes questions about the missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner MH370. Picture: Wong Maye-E Source: AP
What is known is that after MH370 took off from Kuala Lumpur airport at 12.41am on Saturday March 8 it flew towards its Beijing destination with 239 on board, from 12 nations, included 12 crew.
At 1.19am, as the plane was leaving Malaysian air space and about to enter that of Vietnam, the last words from the cockpit were "Good night, Malaysian 370."
After this the plane's transponder was turned off or went off and at 1.22am MH370 disappeared from civilian radar. It turned around and flew back across Malaysia and at 2.22am it was detected on military radar, flying northwest of Penang. The Malaysian military classified it as commercial, non-enemy and leaving their airspace and took no further action.
Authorities now believe that after the final radar detection that MH370 continued to fly for a further six hours, way off course, across the top of Indonesia and down into the ocean several thousand kilometres off Perth.
Calculations, which authorities say have been done by Inmarsat itself and separately by UK air safety investigators, show that after disappearing from the military radar, that it was detected by seven "handshakes" with an Inmarsat communications satellite, normally used for telephone and data services.
The handshakes were hourly, along seven arcs, until one at 8.11am and another shortly afterwards at 8.19am. It is believed that at 8.19am the plane's communications equipment automatically powered up, using a turbine, after it ran out of fuel. By 8.19am it is believed to have been descending into the ocean.
But it is impossible to tell exactly where. All authorities can say is that somewhere on the seventh arc, is where the plane probably ran out of fuel and crashed. That arc covers almost 60,000 square kilometres of ocean and will take a year to search.
Enormous task ... Phoenix Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) Bluefin-21 is craned over the side of Australian Defence Vessel Ocean Shield in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. Picture: Lt Kelli Lunt/Australia Department of Defence Source: Getty Images
The head of Malaysia's Civil Aviation Department, Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, told News Corporation this week in Kuala Lumpur there was "no doubt" the plane was somewhere on that arc.
Families want to know why there is no doubt.
"We are staring down the barrel of 12 months of waiting to see if its there. If you (authorities) are confident (its there) then tell us why, prove to us why you are so confident," Mrs Weeks says.
"I have listened enough and I have trusted enough and now I need to know for myself. Everyone needs to know before they start this new phase of the search that you are confident this is the right place."
Three-year-old Lincoln was his dad's little shadow.
"He knows Dad's gone but there's no more to tell because I don't know. I don't need to burden him with any more at this stage, he is too young to comprehend it all. He helps me (to cope) and I help him."
Jack is only 13 months old. He turned one after his father went missing and is too young to understand his mother's tears.
"I am just a wife looking for a husband. He walked out and that's as far as I know about what's happened to him."
Waiting for daddy ... Danica Weeks with sons Lincoln and Jack. Picture: 60 Minutes Source: Supplied
Back in Kuala Lumpur, spouses want action.
Last week families were promised meetings with the country's Prime Minister Najib Razak "in due time".
Jacquita Gonzales wants to know what does that mean, in due time — is it next week, next month or next year. Or never. She wants a meeting now. Her husband of 29 years was the MH370 In Flight Supervisor — a 34-year veteran of Malaysian Airlines.
The pair was childhood sweethearts, first meeting when she was 12. They married when Jacquita was 22. They have four children.
She knows Patrick would be proud of the stand she has taken. He and the rest of the crew must not be forgotten. Mrs Gonzales and many of the other flight crew families are not happy about their treatment from Malaysian Airlines and the authorities. Most found out the plane was missing from the media, not the airline.
Childhood sweethearts ... Patrick Gomes on his wedding day to Jacquita Gonzales. Source: Supplied
In April, on the spur of the moment, Mrs Gonzales made up a sign on a large piece of cardboard. Then she stood in the blazing sun and later rain, holding it up, waiting for a black car to drive past.
"Barack Obama the most POWERFUL man in the world! PLEASE help me find my husband Patrick Gomes on MH370!"
She stood on the route of Obama's motorcade and as his black car cruised past held it up. She has no idea if Obama, on an official visit to Kuala Lumpur, saw the sign. But she wanted him to feel the family's pain and for the US to do something to help search for MH370.
Then she went to the hotel where Obama was staying in a bid to hold the sign there as well. But Malaysian police took her sign away and moved her on.
"He took my poster away. By that time I started crying, I was so emotional. What can me and my poster do to that car? Then the CIA came up and said I understand what you are trying to do, if you were in my country you would be able to stand here. They refused to give me back my poster," she says now.
After that Mrs Gonzales learned, for the first time, how to use to Twitter and sent a message to the US President's Twitter account, begging him to help find her beloved Patrick.
Plea for help ... Jacquita Gonzales holds a placard for President Obama during his visit to Malaysia. Picture: Joshua Paul Source: News Corp Australia
Three-year-old Raphael is Patrick's only grandchild. The pair was inseparable. Every trip brought treats and gifts for the little boy who was his shadow.
Patrick is due to turn 55 next month and he had already decided to keep working as a flight crew until he was 60 to ensure he could provide for Raphael and his mother, Nicolette, 29.
Raphael, with his shock of curly dark hair, keeps asking why his Granpa is taking so long to come home from this trip.
"I just tell him Granpa has gone on a long flight," Nicolette says now of her son's innocent questions.
Waiting for Granpa ... Raphael and Nicolette Gomes, the grandson and daughter of MH370 in-flight supervisor Patrick Gomes. Source: News Corp Australia
Patrick's seat, at the 12-seater family dining table, has been empty for 100 days. Mrs Gonzales said she and her husband bought the big dining table and each of the couple's four children and partners, had to buy and bring their own chairs.
On his last night, before catching the plane, the family was all there for dinner, sitting in their chairs. Patrick was in his with Raphael on his lap when he got a call that the airline transport was not available to take him to the airport.
"So he bribed us, 'I will pay anyone 120 Ringgit to take me to the airport' and we all said no. So he called a taxi," Mrs Gonzales says, before he voice trails off.
"The would haves, the could have and the should have"
Family man ... Patrick Gomes, with his son Enrique (left) and grandson Raphael. Source: Supplied
That night was like any other night. For their whole married life, Patrick went to work on a plane and always came home with his suitcase laden with goodies for the family. Initially it was for his wife, then when the children came they got the most. Then Raphael got everything.
It would have been the same on this routine trip to Beijing and back again. When he returned Raphael would be standing at the door with toys, or two racquets, begging Patrick to play with him before he was even out of his uniform.
The family hasn't told Raphael what happened but his child's instincts somehow know something is wrong.
"When we say our goodnight prayers he says 'I will pray for Granpa", Mrs Gonzales says.
Fighting for answers ... Raphael and Nicolette Gomes with Jacquita Gonzales. Source: News Corp Australia
Relatives of many of those on board will never stop praying for a miracle, for the safe return of their loved ones.
One of them is Zainab Arifin, the mother of steward Mohd Hazrin Hasnan. He was the only boy among her seven children, a gift from God and she is not ready to let him go just yet.
Last month his wife, Intan Maizura Othaman, gave birth to their son. Her husband, whom she describes as the "best husband and Papa I could ever ask for", was not with her.
Tiny Muhammad will never know his Dad. His sister Iman is four and like all the other children, she too wants to know when Daddy is coming back.
Intan has told her that her Papa's plane had a problem. The day after authorities announced that MH370 had ended in the ocean, Intan wrote to her beloved, telling him she would need to be a "bionic woman" to get through the trial. This week she said she believes she has indeed been a bionic woman.
'Bionic woman' ... Intan Maizura Othaman, wife of steward Mohd Hazrin Hasnan, with their 20-day old son Muhammad. Source: News Corp Australia
Everyone copes in their own way.
Lee Khim Fatt still calls his wife's mobile phone and leaves messages for her. He can't accept yet that she's gone. He sends her Facebook messages telling her how much he loves her.
"I didn't even know that I loved her so much until this happened," Lee says. The tears fall and he sits silently thinking about the love of his life. "Up until now I haven't thought about how to live without her."
Grieving ... Lee Khim Fatt's wife Foong Wai Yueng, was a steward on Flight MH370. Source: News Corp Australia
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Anguish at never-ending MH370 search
Dengan url
https://donyblackedet.blogspot.com/2014/06/anguish-at-never-ending-mh370-search.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Anguish at never-ending MH370 search
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Anguish at never-ending MH370 search
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar