Yet a long journey to closure
EARLY last Thursday morning, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak called for a press conference to announce that debris found on Reunion Island was from flight MH370, which went missing en route to Beijing on March 8 last year.
The families of those on board had been waiting apprehensively for news ever since it was revealed that part of a plane, part of a wing specifically, had been found about a week before, on the shores of the French island.
Reunion Island is located in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar. It was earlier predicted that the flight had “ended” in the Indian Ocean.
The two-metre-long piece of the aircraft was then brought to a military lab near Toulouse in France to be examined in the presence of Malaysian and Australian experts, Boeing employees and representatives from China.
It was determined that it was a flaperon, part of an aircraft’s wing. Experts who examined the piece were more reserved in their findings, saying that it was indeed from a Boeing 777 -- the same make and model as the missing Malaysia Airlines aircraft.
How did the families of those on board react to this new discovery? Some were inconsolable after holding on to hope for 17 months. Others were sceptical, wanting more details and proof.
Some news reports indicated that the discovery of the flaperon would finally bring closure to the family and friends of those on board MH370.
As comforting as the news reports intended to sound, the families will honestly tell you that closure is still a long way off.
The Australians and Chinese have already indicated that they are not going to let the matter rest and have requested for more investigations into the discovery of the plane part.
It is not wrong for the families and friends to want actual confirmation and more information. News like this is indeed hard to swallow, especially for those who have not seen their loved ones for more than a year, not knowing what had happened to them.
This is one aviation mystery riddled with questions. What caused the disappearance of the plane? How did it go down?
Were there those on board who were involved directly in its disappearance? Or were there unseen hands to be blamed? Was it mechanical? Why had there been no contact whatsoever with the plane when it went far off its intended route?
Why had the plane gone off course, flying for hours with its communications and tracking systems shut down?
The families will not rest until they have answers. They hope that the black box will be found to provide them.
Again, this may not happen. Even if the black box is found, will it really reveal what happened?
Where is the main body of the plane? Would the remains of those on board still be in there?
Knowing that you will probably never be able to bring your loved one to a final resting ground which you can visit will also prove to be a challenge for many of the families.
On a more positive note, the discovery of the flaperon indicates roughly where the plane would have gone down.
How, we still do not know. Experts studying current flows in the ocean may eventually be able to determine an approximate area where the main body of the plane is.
This will take time unlike in the movies where search, rescue and recovery can take place in a matter of days. Even with stateof-the-art technology, what takes place in the real world cannot be played in fast-forward mode.
The discovery of the flaperon does not put to rest the search for MH370. This has now become an even bigger task for those in the search team.
Knowing that the plane is out there places an even heavier responsibility on the shoulders of those racing against time for answers, finding the entire wreckage and recovering as many bodies as they can for the families.
Eye believe those who are involved in the search have also become somewhat emotionally attached to this whole event and will face emotional and physical fatigue, knowing that the hopes of the families lie in their hands.
The families will continue to endure another long and emotional wait for these answers and, hopefully, the recovery. There is no guarantee that questions will be answered in the near future. No guarantee that recovery will take place anytime soon.
Closure is still a long way off and for some closure may never even be attained.
We pray for those on board the plane, wherever they may be and we pray that their families remain strong through these trying times.