by Ean Higgins
‘And that was the last kissing . . . Oh my God, I have not felt this feeling for a long, long time . . . sad,’ Intan told the interviewer, as her face shone from the blend of happiness of the memory and the pain that it was just that.
Also like Danica, the disappearance of MH370 left Maizura a single mother bringing up two young children. ‘All I can remember that day I just cry and cry and cry and cry,’ Maizura said in MH370: Inside the Situation Room. ‘That’s all I remember on 8 March.’
The cluster of memories at Intan’s house includes a photograph of Hazrin formally kissing Maizura on the forehead on their wedding day, two of the couple’s old Malaysia Airlines identification cards, a little pottery item of an airliner and another saying ‘No. 1 Dad’. There are two small heart-shaped pictures of each of them.
‘That’s when he gave me “I love Intan”,’ Maizura said. ‘He is very romantic, yeah, who didn’t fall for that, right?’
Like Jeanette, Danica and Teresa, it’s the not knowing that intensifies the pain.
‘I still have so many questions, sometimes I burst into tears because I don’t have the answers. My heart says, something is wrong somewhere, this thing is weird.’
Speaking of her young daughter, Maizura said, ‘And sometimes she will ask, “Where is Papa’s grave?” What to say? You know, even though the truth might be painful, we do want to know the truth, that’s all.’
After briefing families and journalists in Putrajaya on the Monday on his safety investigation report on the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, Kok Soo Chon took the roadshow to Beijing to tell Chinese families that after four-and-a-half years of investigation he had not been able to work out what happened to the aircraft.
About 100 next-of-kin, some from poor rural families, made the journey to the Chinese capital, some travelling 10 hours paying train fares they could not really afford. Farmer Li Eryou, 62, came from rural Handan in Hebei province with his wife, hoping to find out something about the disappearance of their son who had been one of the few from his village to attend university, and who had been working in Malaysia for Chinese telecommunications equipment company ZTE.
Li told The Global Times: ‘My child is a telecommunication worker who has to travel all year around. Though he is missing now, I still feel that he is working far away. It’s the same as before.’
After the briefing, The Global Times reported, Li and his wife slept overnight at Beijing Railway Station to catch the first early train home. His wife put the thick investigation report under her head as a pillow. During the year after the accident, Li’s wife had to take Valium every day. She often cried in her sleep or smashed things, like her mobile phone, for no apparent reason. In the summer of 2015, she was diagnosed with major depression.
At the briefing in Beijing, some of the family members wore T-shirts with a drawing of MH370 and the words ‘Search ON’. They rose in an angry chant:
‘This report is not enough at all! It’s fooling everyone here. We need to keep investigating. Keep searching!’
The MH370 next-of-kin want to honour their missing in their own way, not have politicians do it for them.
In late June 2018, after continuing protests from families around the world, the Western Australian and federal governments finally cottoned on. In a joint statement, Premier Mark McGowan and federal Transport Minister Michael McCormack announced that ‘after careful consideration’, it would be ‘inappropriate’ to go ahead with a permanent memorial in Perth to those lost.
‘We are very confident, after consulting with the Australian relatives, that we have made the right call,’ the statement said.
It was a victory for the families over the politicians and senior bureaucrats, and for sensitivity and common sense.
‘When they find the plane, then we at least know where they are, and we can make a decision about where to build a memorial,’ Danica told Perth Now at the time. ‘We should not have wasted energy on this – that energy should have been spent on finding the plane.’
Apart from the Lawtons and the Burrows, there were two other Australians lost on MH370, and they had two children.
Unlike the relations of the Lawtons and the Burrows, those children are just too young to be interviewed. But as they grow up they will be wanting to find out what happened to their parents just as much as the children of the Lawtons and the Burrows, and they have the potential to be haunted by not knowing for a lot longer.
The third Australian couple to travel on the missing Malaysian flight were, as mentioned in Chapter One, Gu Naijun and Li Yuan, from Sydney. Gu, 31 and Li, 33 came from China but, it’s understood, met in Sydney. They were a couple who, like many in modern China and Australia, juggled their lives between the two countries. Li was a partner in software firm Beijing Landysoft Technology, and the couple also owned a petrol station in southern Sydney.
Gu and Li had two ‘little princesses’, as they called them on social media. The western media, at least, does not appear to have established their names, nor their ages, though they look from photographs no more than one year old, and three, at the time their parents went missing on MH370. Gu posted some photos of her family on Weibo – a popular Chinese social media website – and in the days following the disappearance of MH370, journalists tracked down the bright and innocent snapshots of the girls going swimming at a pool, having lunch and parading around in costumes.
Gu shared the posts with Li, who was on the road a lot.
‘Dad, I’m playing on the slide now,’ the caption said in one scene at a playground.
‘You’ll be rolling all over the floor,’ was the reply.
The families and friends of Gu and Li did not speak much to the media; it was a pretty shocking case of two very young girls suddenly and tragically made orphans. But a few days after MH370 vanished, the Sydney Morning Herald tracked down a high-school classmate of Gu who said she kept in touch after her friend went to university in Sydney.
‘I only hope she can safely return,’ the friend, who only wanted to be identified as Shelly, told the newspaper. ‘If not, it’s just too sad for her children and parents.’
At the Maleny Hotel, it only took an instant for Danica Weeks to find the last email exchanges with her missing husband which she keeps close, in the electronic folders on her phone, and to her heart. The last one was sent about three hours before MH370 took off. They are reproduced here, verbatim, with the odd typo unchanged.
From: Paul Weeks
Date: 7 March 2014 at 5:20:15 pm AEST
To: Danica Weeks
Subject: Miss you all already
Hi Puppy,
Hard to say good by; I was choking back the water works, however the 28 days will go fast send I will be back. Give the boys an extra big hug and kiss from their Dad.
Those two monkeys are my world (as are you).
In the lounge getting my fill (as only a noohs can), so hit me back a message, will be here for another 1/2 hour.
Love
PAULY
Date: 7 March 2014 at 9:11 PM, Danica Weeks wrote:
Hi Sweet,
Sorry was at soccer.. then we went & had dinner at Sam’s, boys all had showers & baths togther & now fast asleep.. me watching escape to country with cup of tea & ginger nut:)
Was the flight good? i miss you heaps cried most of the way to soccer had to wear sunglasses!! Linc still thinks your coming home late so going to hit him quite hard, but he’s looking forward to skyping you.
Love pp xox
Date: 8 March 2014 at 12:53:04 am AEST
Hi honey,
Yes I was fragile for quite some time; mostly thinking about how Lincoln would feel when he realises that I am not going to be home for 28 days. Maybe you can use your fridge calendar to help him visualise when I will be home.
I am at Kula Lumpur at present, leaving here in two h
ours, then six hours to Beijing.
Glad to hear you caught up with Sam; now that you are both FIFO wives, you can lend a shoulder to each other when you are feeling down.
I don’t know if I will be able to Skype you until I get to U.B, the bandwidth here in K.L is crap; barley opens a webpage, let alone Skype anyone, still. I will try once I get there.
Byway pokey, this counts as day 1, so cross it off the calendar – only 27 more to go.:)
Lots of love
Paul
When I asked Danica what she does for fun these days, she said:
‘A fun night generally is a fire outside, a pizza and a family movie. When this happened, life became precious.’
Danica said by raising her two boys, in one sense, her missing husband was always there.
‘The kids, they have Paul in them,’ she said. ‘I just need to look at Jack, and I can see Paul. Lincoln talks like Paul. There is always a part of him with me.’
But, Danica said: ‘I will only be released when they find him.’
GLOSSARY
ailerons: Aircraft control surfaces on the wings that control roll, used to bank the aircraft.
Air Accidents Investigation Branch: The British government’s air crash investigation unit.
Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS): Digital datalink system for transmission of short messages between aircraft and ground stations including automatic relay of data about aircraft performance and activity.
airway: Defined flight route upon which commercial aircraft are usually required to travel.
Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA): The national body in charge of marine search and rescue operations.
Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB): The federal government agency that investigates air crashes and other transport accidents.
autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV): Torpedo-like un-manned miniature submarine equipped with cameras, side-scan sonar, multi-beam echo-sounders and other devices, which are programmed to scan, chart and photograph underwater topography and objects on it.
auxiliary power unit (APU): Generator that can provide electrical and hydraulic power to an aircraft when the main engines are not running, operated by a small jet engine usually in the tail.
black box: see flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder.
blind transmission: In air traffic control, a radio call from controllers to an aircraft, which is thought to be in flight, to establish communications.
Broken Ridge: Large underwater escarpment rising from the sea floor in the southern Indian Ocean off the coast of Western Australia.
Bureau of Inquiry and Analysis in Civil Aviation Security (BEA): The French government’s air accident investigation agency.
burst frequency offset (BFO): Measure of changes in frequency in electronic ‘handshakes’ between a satellite and an aircraft’s satellite data unit, used to calculate speed.
burst timing offset (BTO): Measure of changes in time, and hence distance, in electronic ‘handshakes’ between a satellite and an aircraft’s satellite data unit.
cockpit voice recorder: The aircraft ‘black box’ that automatically records voices and sounds from the plane’s flight deck.
Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG): A branch of the Australian Department of Defence that provides specialised knowledge and analysis of military-related matters. Previously known as Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO).
ditch: The act of landing an aircraft on water in an emergency.
elevator: On an aircraft, the control surface on the tail that controls pitch, or up and down movement.
first officer: The co-pilot on an aircraft.
flap: Moveable surface on the rear of an aircraft’s wing that can be deployed to change the airflow for more lift and reduced speed.
flaperon: Moveable surface on the rear of an aircraft’s wing which can be deployed as a flap for take-off and landing but acts as an aileron during cruise for controlling bank.
flight data recorder (FDR): The aircraft ‘black box’ which automatically records hundreds of flight parameters including pilot control inputs, altitude, speed and other factors.
Flight Information Region: The large global division of airspace in which air traffic control centres take responsibility for guiding air traffic.
flight management system: The computer system which guides a flight automatically according to instructions from the pilots; the autopilot.
flutter: The potentially dangerous out-of-control flapping of a control surface such as a rudder, aileron or elevator, or a flap, in flight.
Freedom of Information (FOI): In the Australian federal public service, the statutory process guided by the FOI Act in which individuals can seek documents from federal departments and agencies.
hypoxia: Lack of adequate oxygen which can cause grogginess, unconsciousness, brain damage and death, in civil aviation usually caused by accidental decompression of an aircraft at high altitude.
Inmarsat: British satellite company that owned and operated the satellite over the Indian Ocean that relayed automatic electronic ‘handshakes’ from the satellite data unit of MH370 to a ground station.
International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO): The Montreal-based specialised agency of the United Nations that develops and guides international protocols for air navigation and administration, including, under what is known as Annex 13, air crash investigations.
Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC): The administrative body established in early 2014 by the Australian federal government to coordinate the response of agencies and departments to the disappearance of MH370, including communications with the media, next-of-kin, and foreign government officials.
knot: Measure of speed in maritime and aviation navigation: one knot is one nautical mile per hour, roughly equivalent to just under two kilometres per hour.
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB): The US government agency that investigates air crashes and other transport accidents.
nautical mile (NM): Measure of distance in maritime and aviation navigation, roughly equivalent to just under two kilometres.
Ocean Infinity: British-owned, Houston-based underwater marine survey company that conducted the second seabed search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.
phugoid: A cyclical aircraft motion, usually when it is unpiloted or under only partial control, in which it naturally climbs or goes level until it slows down and approaches a stall, then dives, picks up speed, and climbs again.
pilot-in-command (PIC): The flight officer in charge of an aircraft on a flight; the captain.
primary radar: In aviation, radar which detects and tracks aircraft through the return and analysis of electronic pulses bounced off them.
ram air turbine (RAM): Device which automatically deploys from the fuselage of an aircraft into the slipstream during total engine failure to provide a bare minimum of hydraulic and electrical power to run control surfaces and essential instruments.
rapid decompression: Fast loss of pressurisation of an aircraft at high altitude, usually due to an accident which damages the integrity of the fuselage.
rating: A qualification for a pilot to fly an aircraft of a certain type or in particular conditions.
rudder: The control surface on an aircraft’s tail which controls left-or-right direction, known as yaw.
satellite data unit (SDU): The electronic unit on an aircraft which transmits and receives data and telephone and fax communications via satellite relay to ground stations. Also known as SATCOM.
Search Strategy Working Group (SSWG): The panel of international experts from overseas government air crash investigation bodies, British satellite company Inmarsat, and US aircraft manufacturer Boeing which advised the ATSB in its search for MH370.
secondary radar
: Radar that detects signals emitted from an aircraft’s transponder which broadcasts its identity, position, altitude, and speed, used by air traffic controllers to keep track of flights and guide pilots.
Seventh Arc: The band in the southern Indian Ocean upon which MH370 is thought to have come down after running out of fuel. It is based on the last of seven notional rings around the Asia-Pacific region upon which MH370 is thought to have been flying at the time of each of seven roughly hourly automatic electronic ‘handshakes’ between MH370’s satellite data unit and an Inmarsat satellite over the Indian Ocean.
sonar: System used to detect, map and produce images of underwater objects and topography by analysing the return of electronic signals bounced off them through the water, much like radar does in the air.
sortie: An aerial mission – a departure, flight and return of an aircraft – such as on a search and rescue operation.
stall: The aerodynamic fail point for an aircraft where it slows to the point where the airflow over the wings is no longer fast enough to produce enough lift to keep it in the air, and it starts to fall from the sky.
towfish: The devices towed by ships on a long tether which carry side-scan sonar used to search for objects on the seabed.
trailing edge: The rear part of a wing, flap or control surface on an aircraft based on the orientation it is flying forward through the air; the opposite position to the ‘leading edge’.
transponder: Electronic device on an aircraft which transmits a signal to air traffic control radar on the ground with the plane’s identity, position, altitude and speed in real time.
Transportation Safety Board (TSB): The Canadian federal agency which investigates air crashes and other transport accidents.
underwater locator beacon (‘pinger’): The electronic devices attached to an aircraft’s black box flight recorders that automatically emit an acoustic signal when submerged, enabling searchers with ‘pinger locator’ equipment to find aircraft that have crashed in bodies of water.
waypoint: Points of latitude and longitude on airways used as reference points for air navigation and air traffic control purposes, whose names are all composed of five capital letters.
