By Gaspar Ruiz-Canela
Bangkok, Mar 7 (EFE).- Malaysian Grace S. Nathan has not overcome the loss of her mother, a passenger on Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 that disappeared mysteriously a decade ago.
As the 10th anniversary of the disappearance on Friday approaches, she finds little solace in the scant evidence indicating a possible crash in the Indian Ocean.
Nathan, one of the spokespersons for the families affected by MH370’s mysterious disappearance, said in a video-conference interview with EFE that she felt like she had been asking the same unanswered questions about her mother, Anne Daisy, and the other 238 occupants of the Boeing 777 that vanished on March 8, 2014.
“It’s difficult to move on when you don’t have a single answer. (…) We don’t know why the plane turned around, we don’t know where the plane is, we don’t know what happened, and we don’t know why it happened. I asked those questions 10 years ago. I’m still asking them today,” says the 36-year-old Malaysian, who lives in Kuala Lumpur with her Spanish husband and two young children.
Last Sunday, Nathan attended an event to commemorate the 10th anniversary in Subang Jaya, near Kuala Lumpur, along with other relatives with similar questions about one of the greatest aviation mysteries.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said his country was willing to reopen the investigation if “convincing” evidence is found, which has sparked renewed hope for the families.
“I think the prospects are very good for the search to resume again,” said the Malaysian, adding that Ocean Infinity, the company that conducted the last search in 2018, is willing to resume the operation.
Despite a renewed optimism, Nathan says her hopes fluctuate daily. She vividly remembers “the roller coaster” of emotions she experienced in the initial days and weeks following the disappearance of flight MH370, which vanished about 40 minutes after departing from Kuala Lumpur en route to Beijing.
Her mother had planned to go to China to visit her husband a week earlier, but had to delay the trip and ended up boarding the Boeing 777.
Nathan, who was studying law in the UK, took a flight to Kuala Lumpur as soon as her father told her something had happened to the plane.
“I didn’t have any internet, and that was the longest 14 hours of my life because I had no idea what had happened,” said Nathan, who now works as a criminal lawyer in her country.
In the days, weeks, and months that followed, Nathan, along with her father, sister, and the relatives of other passengers, endured the anguish of uncertainty due to the lack of information, compounded by intense international media scrutiny.
Over time, some details regarding the fate of MH370 started to surface, primarily through analyses of military radar data and Inmarsat satellite information.
The official investigation revealed that someone deliberately disabled the communications system. As the plane entered Vietnamese airspace, it deviated southwest, traversing the Malaysian peninsula. It continued flying for approximately six hours before purportedly crashing into the Indian Ocean.
The range of theories regarding what happened spans from one of the pilots intentionally crashing the plane to possibilities such as technical malfunctions or hijacking.
Nathan would rather rely on evidence and verified information, such as the discovery of scattered plane debris in different locations across the Indian Ocean. However, despite two extensive search operations, the main body of the aircraft remains elusive.
The Malaysian lawyer and other relatives maintain contact through the support group Voice 370, which utilizes social media to disseminate information and organize events to commemorate the tragedy.
Yet, she acknowledges that at times, she speaks of her mother in the present tense, almost as if she’s merely “gone on vacation,” unable to fully accept her absence.
She also vividly remembers her mother’s last words when she said, “I love you,” something not commonly said in Asia.
“We don’t say it verbally. Maybe you write it on a Christmas card or birthday card or something, but she told me she loved me, and I was like, oh, this is very strange, but I told her I love you too, and I am glad I did because that was really the last conversation we had.” EFE
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