KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Over the past decade, Grace Subathirai Nathan has graduated from law school, gotten married, opened a law firm and had two children. But part of her is frozen in time, still in denial about losing her mother to the disappearance Malaysia Airlines plane In 2014.
There was no funeral service, and Grace, 35, still talks about her mother in the present tense. When she married in 2020, she walked down the aisle with a photo of her mother inside a bouquet of tulips — chosen because of her mother's name, Anne-Catherine Daisy.
The Malaysian criminal lawyer has become one of the main faces of Voice 370, a next of kin support group, where she has channeled her grief into keeping the search for answers in the disappearance of MH370 torn apart families.
He added: “In terms of continuing, I have progressed in my career and in my family life… but I am still trying to continue the search for MH370.” “I'm trying to push to find the plane, and this way I don't move,” Grace said in an interview. “Logically in my mind I know I'll probably never see her again, but I haven't been able to fully accept that, and emotionally I think there's a gap that hasn't been filled because it hasn't been closed.”
A woman writes good messages on a message board during a 10th anniversary event at a shopping mall, in Subang Jaya, on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Sunday, March 3, 2024. (AP Photo/FL Wong)
the A puzzling disappearance Flight 370 still fascinates people. The Boeing 777 departed Kuala Lumpur with 239 people on board on March 8, 2014, but disappeared from radar soon after and never reached its destination, Beijing. Investigators say Someone intentionally shut down The plane's communications system was damaged and the plane was thrown off course.
The plane is believed to have It fell in a remote area South Indian Ocean based on satellite data, but extensive research has been fruitless. No wreckage or bodies were ever found except for fragments that washed ashore on the African coast and Indian Ocean islands.
The families of those on board, many from China, have found different ways to cope with grief, but one thing is constant: their mission for justice and answers. The pain still torments some families who question theories about the fate of the plane and cling to hope for the return of their loved ones.
Like Grace, Chinese farmer Li Eryu also did not hold a funeral or memorial service for his only son.
He has a council at home Which counts every day that has passed since the disappearance of MH370. Li Yanlin, 27, had a promising career as an engineer at a telecommunications company that closed.
He told me that pain comes easily because of a sound, an object, or even a flower.
“All these years I have been walking through life like a ghost,” he told me in an interview in the Chinese city of Handan. “When I meet my friends and relatives, I have to smile. At night, I can be true to myself. When everything is quiet in the dead of night, I cry without people knowing.”
Lee recently moved in with his daughter due to deteriorating health. At his former residence, newspaper clippings of the missing plane, yellowed with age, still hang on the wall, and his son's room remains largely untouched.
“I think my son is still on the plane, that he still exists. Or he lives on a remote island like Robinson Crusoe,” he told me, referring to his son's favorite book.
Chinese farmer Li Eryu looks at a book written about the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 from the bookshelf in his son's former room in a village in Handan, north China's Hebei Province on February 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Emily Wang Fujiyama)
Lee and his wife rarely travel, but they have made multiple trips to Malaysia for answers and to Madagascar, where parts of the plane washed up on beaches. The lack of answers only deepens their suffering.
They are among about 40 Chinese families who have refused a small amount of sympathy from the airline. They have filed a lawsuit against five entities including Malaysia Airlines, Boeing and aircraft engine maker Rolls-Royce, demanding larger damages and answers about who should be held accountable. Court hearings began in Beijing in November, and the ruling may take months.
On the hundredth day after the flight disappeared, he wrote me his first poem in which he expressed his longing for his son. Since then, he has written about 2,000 books that helped him overcome grief.
“We shouted to the earth: Malaysia Airlines 370. The earth is roaring, silent and never going away. He is not here, he is not here. Don't you see the heavy backpack on my son's shoulders? One verse says: 'Drops of sweat from hard work glistening on his forehead.'” We have resumed 10,000 times, restart your search.”
“I wrote down my feelings. The only reason I was able to survive all these years is because of these words,” he told me.
There is now new hope for closure. During a commemoration ceremony in Kuala Lumpur last Sunday, the Malaysian government said it would look into the matter Proposal for new research By the American marine robotics company Ocean Infinity, which conducted Chasing “No Charge” in 2018.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said during a speech at the Australian National University in Canberra on Thursday that he was inclined to support reopening the investigation into what happened to flight MH370, but the decision must be based on hard facts.
It is unclear whether Ocean Infinity has new data to pinpoint the plane's location.
“Once we know what happened, only then can the true form of healing begin… Until these questions are answered, no matter how much you try to move forward or how much you try to close that chapter, it will never go away,” Grace said.
Her mother wasn't supposed to be on the plane originally. She was scheduled to travel a week ago, but delayed her trip to care for Grace's sick grandmother, who died months after the plane disappeared.
“MH370 extends beyond our need to shut down and I just want everyone to know that MH370 is not history. It is the future of aviation safety because until we find MH370, we cannot prevent something like this from happening again,” Grace said.
Jacqueta Gomez, whose husband Patrick was a supervisor on the plane, said 126 books had been written and several documentaries made about MH370, but much of it was just speculation with no real answers.
“We keep his memories alive and talk about him constantly. He may be gone but he has not been forgotten and will never be forgotten, so we urge the search to continue,” she said. “We need to make sure flights are safe again. …Let's not forget everyone on board.
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Associated Press video producer Olivia Zhang in Beijing contributed to this report.
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