(Kuala Lumpur) Over the past decade, Grace Subathirai Nathan graduated from law school, got married, opened a law practice and had two babies. But a part of her is frozen in time, still in denial about the loss of her mother on the Malaysia Airlines plane that disappeared in 2014.
There was no funeral ceremony and Grace, 35, still talks about her mother in the present tense. When she got married in 2020, she walked down the aisle with a photo of her mother in a bouquet of daisies ― chosen because of her mother’s name, Anne Catherine Daisy.
The Malaysian criminal lawyer has become one of the main faces of Voice 370, a support group for loved ones, by channeling her grief to keep alive the quest for answers in the disappearance of Flight MH370 that tore families apart.
“I’ve progressed in my career, in my family life… but I’m still trying to ensure that the search for MH370 continues. I’m trying to push for the plane to be found, so in that sense I haven’t made any progress, Ms.me Grace in an interview.
“Logically, in my brain, I know I’ll probably never see her again, but I haven’t been able to fully accept it, and I think emotionally there’s a gap that hasn’t been bridged in due to the lack of closure. »
The puzzling disappearance of Flight 370 continues to captivate people. The Boeing 777 left Kuala Lumpur with 239 people on March 8, 2014, but disappeared from radar screens shortly after and never reached Beijing, its destination. Investigators say someone deliberately shut off the plane’s communications system and caused it to veer off course.
According to satellite data, the plane plunged into a remote area in the southern Indian Ocean, but a massive search was unsuccessful. No debris or bodies have ever been found, except for fragments washed up on the coasts of Africa and the islands of the Indian Ocean.
The families of those on board, many of whom are from China, have found different ways to cope with their grief, but one thing remains constant: their search for justice and answers. Pain still torments some families who doubt theories about the plane’s fate and cling to hope that their loved ones will return.
Like Grace, Chinese farmer Li Eryou did not hold a funeral or memorial service for his only son.
He has a chart at home on which he counts each day that passes since the disappearance of flight MH370. Li Yanlin, 27, had a promising career as an engineer at a telecommunications company, but it was cut short.
The pain comes on easily, triggered by a sound, an object, even a flower, Li said.
“All these years, I have drifted through life like a ghost,” Li said in an interview in the city of Handan, China. When I meet my friends and relatives, I have to smile. At night I can become true to myself. When everything is quiet in the dead of night, I cry without people knowing. »
Li recently moved in with her daughter due to health issues. In his former residence, newspaper clippings about the missing plane, yellowed with time, still hang on the wall and his son’s bedroom remains virtually intact.
“I believe my son is still on the flight, he is still there. Or he lives on an isolated island, like Robinson Crusoe,” Mr. Li said, referring to his son’s favorite book.
Li and his wife rarely travel, but they have been to Malaysia several times for answers and to Madagascar, where pieces of the plane have washed up on beaches. The lack of answers only worsens their agony.
They are among around forty Chinese families who rejected a small compassionate allowance paid by the airline. They sued five entities, including Malaysia Airlines, Boeing and aircraft engine maker Rolls-Royce, seeking greater compensation and answers about each party’s responsibilities. Court hearings began in Beijing in November and a verdict could take months.
There is now new hope of turning the page. At a commemorative event in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, the Malaysian government said it would consider a proposal for a new search by US marine robotics company Ocean Infinity, which conducted a “no find, no fee” hunt. » in 2018.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said in a speech at the Australian National University in Canberra on Thursday that he was inclined to support reopening an investigation into what happened to Flight MH370, but that the decision had to be based on irrefutable facts.
It is unclear whether Ocean Infinity has new data to locate the plane.
“Once we know what happened, only then can a true form of healing begin…until these questions are answered, no matter how much you try to move forward or how much you try to closing this chapter, it will never go away,” Grace explained.
Originally, her mother wasn’t supposed to take the flight. She was scheduled to fly out a week early, but postponed her trip to care for Grace’s ailing grandmother, who died a few months after the plane disappeared.
“MH370 goes well beyond our need for closure and I want everyone to know that MH370 is not history. This is the future of aviation safety, because until we find MH370, we cannot prevent something like this from happening again,” Grace said.
Jacquita Gomes, whose husband Patrick was a supervisor on the plane, said 126 books have been written and numerous documentaries made about MH370, but much of it is speculation without real answers.
“We keep his memory alive and we talk about him constantly. He may be gone, but he has not been forgotten and never will be, which is why we urge the search to continue, she said. We need to make sure flights are safe again. …Let’s not forget everyone who was on board. »