PETALING JAYA: It is close to one year since the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 and two women continue to seek answers, as they still hold out for all possibilities to the mystery they call greater than the Titanic.
Amanda Lawton and her maternal aunt Jeanette Maguire spoke to the Herald Sun in Australia over the emotional struggle and the search for truth amid all the rumours, conspiracy theories, and misinformation on the missing plane.
Lawton is the daughter of MH370 passengers Bob and Cathy Lawton, and she went on her own journey late last year to follow the path that her parents had planned to complete all those months before.
After confronting her fear of flying, something she shared with her father, Lawton was able to get to Kuala Lumpur and Beijing during her four-month trek. And every time she was in flight, her aunt tracked her movement on FlightAware.
According to the Australian daily, Lawton met relatives of MH370 passengers in the two cities and compared notes on the various sinister scenarios that they had heard or read about the missing plane.
She returned home shortly before Christmas, and during her time away, Maguire’s continued research into what could have caused the plane to turn left from its original path brought her to the conclusion that there could have been some “foul play”.
She shared with her niece the briefing session by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) that she attended in early December, and the questions she fired at them.
Maguire told the Herald Sun that MH370’s left turns convinced her of cockpit choices, but on where the plane ended its journey, she wondered if there could have been a struggle.
It was a couple of days after Christmas, though, that a fresh flurry of ideas as to the outcome of MH370 hit them.
However, it took another tragedy for this to happen: Indonesia AirAsia flight QZ8501, en route to Singapore from Surabaya, crashed into the Java Sea on Dec 28.
The Herald Sun reports Lawton describing the sight of oil slicks as a kind of flashback, as she remembered news of oil slicks in the South China Sea where MH370 was originally thought to have gone down.
Maguire, too, started comparing the search and discovery of Flight QZ8501 for clues. She realised that there was little wreckage on the surface from the disaster.
“The plane was found upside down, with the cargo on top. And this kept the fuselage weighed down. You’re thinking, well, this could have happened to MH370 too,” she told the Herald Sun. Still, with the closure to the QZ8501 tragedy since, for Lawton and Maguire and other MH370 families affected, the search goes on, as they look to separate emotion and logic getting to the truth on the fate of MH370.
In the meantime, their lives go on as normal as it possibly can but with major changes to certain routines.
According to Herald Sun, Maguire, who has two young sons, said although she decided to return to work a week after the plane’s disappearance, her niece is still on hiatus, not returning to her job at a state government agency in Queensland.
Aside from their own continued research and discussions, there is also the weekly calls and emails from both Malaysia Airlines and the ATSB to update families of any new development.
Maguire, who is 20 years older than Lawton, shared the words of ATSB head Martin Dolan, who had told her with “cautious optimism” that “we will find something in the search area by the end of May.” She accepts, though, that the evidence may take far longer to find.
“After all, it took seven decades before scientists found the Titanic,” Maguire said, suggesting that equipment may yet be developed to aid in the search for the missing plane.
Still, Maguire is hopeful the plane is found this year for the answers and closure the family needs, the Herald Sun reports.
In the meantime, she admits to staring at the Indian Ocean whenever she sees a map or globe. — The Malaysian Insider
This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on February 23, 2015.