MH370: One Year Later

I clearly remember waking on the morning of Saturday 8 March, turning on the news and learning that a Malaysia Airlines plane was missing on route from KL to Beijing.

I remembered my own last flight on MAS from KL to London when I sat at the window seat with the parents of a stewardess next to me. They spoke little English but were so kind, their daughter kept sneeking them snacks which they shared with me.

I thought of those parents that morning, was their daughter on this flight? How many other parents just like them were sitting by the phone at that moment? I was glued to Sky News the entire weekend, I assumed the plane must have crashed in the Gulf of Thailand and it might take a few days to find it.

Little did I know that a year on the plane would still be missing and like that first weekend I would remained glued to information sources and Twitter with an inexplicable need to know where the plane is and how it got there.

I suffer from terrible ear pain when landing on a flight. My eyes start pouring and it can be a bit disorientating. This wonderful mum sitting next to me on that flight simply held my hand and nodded in support.

I wished there was a way I could do something to help those affected by the missing MH370 but all I could do was watch TV, read Twitter and wait.

Then I read about Tomnod and realised there was something I could do as these crowdsourcing folks were asking for help. I joined up and spent a rather obsessive amount of time looking through map frames, flagging oil rigs and boats as ‘other’ in the context their location on a given day may be helpful at some point…didn’t have a clue about the fact they are monitored anyway etc.

I was newish to Twitter, I mostly read things and actually tweeting felt like a big deal despite being careful about using my real name – too may oddballs out there!

Before long I was following folks with an interest in MH370, and tweeting away. I gained confidence to flag the images I had flagged and before long I was emailing with folks to ask a bundle of questions.

I started this blog, I flagged what I felt I had to flag and I am satisfied that the authorities have taken my input seriously, including the Chief of the Royal Malaysian Navy who said these images will be studied.

Is this location where MH370 ended its journey, I do not know. I am an office worker from the UK, not an expert in Geospacial Science. Are these images of objects reflecting the sun, yes, I have had feedback to say so but that does not mean these objects are related to MH370. They do however support the witness accounts of Kate Tee and Hasbi from Aceh if MH370 ended its journey 75 Miles West of Meulaboh. Did these objects wash out to the wider sea as did much of the Aceh debris from the Tsunami?

As we approach the 8 March a year on, I can only continue to pray for the families who have lost so much and remain in the limbo of the unknown.