A Missing Plane

That night, as I sent KS off to the train station for him to grab his Boeing 777 MAS flight to Japan en route to Chicago, little did I know it would be a historical night for another Boeing 777 MAS flight which was meant to head to Beijing a few hours later.

The news started circulating in the early hours of the next morning and I only found out because my sister was supposed to meet her friend at 10am that morning. And her meeting was cancelled because her friend's father was missing on the flight to Beijing.

Missing? What does that mean? How can a huge plane vanish into thin air? We scoured the net for more information and the information which was trickling in became more and more confusing. All possible theories surfaced. The weekend was basically being glued to Twitter, Facebook, CNN, BBC, Bloomberg on my phone since I don't have tv.

Within that day itself, I found out two of the passengers are from my church (one of whom is a crew member) and my ex colleague's wife, her sister and mother were also on that plane. Later on that week, I found out one of them is my friend's colleague in IBM. His office desk is filled with paper cranes of hope.

Even though there were 50 Malaysians on that plane, suddenly the nation became smaller as people started identifying them with their friend's friend, relative etc. Wave upon wave of prayers and hope flooded the social media (and it still is) as we all waited for developments. Of course, with it you get idiots saying the stupidest things, a bomoh (shaman) with his coconuts causing embarrassment to the nation, a fumbling investigation of statements and retracting of statements which created confusion to the world.

Now, a week after, we have only managed to narrow it down to the most possible conclusion, which is that of a hijacked plane. And still no trace of the plane. This, of course, is alarming to the world. What do they want to do with the plane, the hostages if they're still alive? Who is being targeted? If this is a hijack, why haven't they said anything, demanded ransom, anything?? Did they land the plane or did it crash eventually?

But hopes are still lingering that despite 7 days have passed, the crew and passengers are still alive somewhere out there.

The waiting is terrible for the nation but must be excruciatingly agonizing for the family members. This is another weekend of being glued to the internet for developments and fervently praying for the safety of the 239 people on board.