‘WE NEARLY TOOK MH370’

Couple relate how they were supposed to have boarded flight

“MY wife and I should have been on Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 for a holiday to Beijing, but we cancelled at the last minute because my mother was ill.”

Till this day, Bahari Baharom, 45, cannot believe his luck and that of his 41-year-old wife, Azizah Sutiman.

Speaking at his home in Bandar Springhill here yesterday, Bahari said they had used the services of a tour agency and were given three dates for their holiday in China.

“My wife and I chose March 8 and were to have flown on Flight MH370. Actually, I hadn’t fully paid the airfare, which was about RM4,000. A week before that, my mother fell ill... she died two months later,” said the engineer.

He said he was shocked when he heard about the Malaysia Airlines flight disappearing and, despite not being involved, the tragedy will always be ingrained in his family’s mind as they had somehow been “saved”.

“For the past four years, we have always wondered, whenever Flight MH370 is mentioned, what would have happened to our three children, who at that time were aged between 3 and 7.

“I cannot even begin to imagine what could have happened to all those victims... In my heart, I still hope that they are safe somewhere.”

He said his friends had been a source of strength for him.

“My friends knew that my wife and I were supposed to have been on Flight MH370. They knew I was disheartened for a while... they helped me through it.”

He said he and Azizah made it to Beijing in December the same year.

“We have been following Flight MH370 developments and praying for the passengers, crew and their families.”

He said he understood that there were other people who were supposed to have been on the flight.

He said he believed these people had never come forward as they were traumatised by what happened.

On March 8, 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, a Boeing 777-200ER aircraft, was en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew on board when it disappeared from air traffic controllers’ radar screens. It was believed to have turned back while over the South China Sea, then made its way back across the Malaysian peninsula. Analysis of satellite communications from the aircraft showed it ended up in the southern half of the Indian Ocean, somewhere west of Perth.