Sentiments at the MH370 10^th anniversary remembrance event in Kuala Lumpur were mixed: tears of grief from some of the next of kin who were overcome by emotion at certain points in the afternoon along with hope that a proposed new search for the plane may finally bring answers and closure.

Relatives of those on board the missing plane applauded when Malaysia’s Transport Minister, Anthony Loke, said that the ministry was ready to invite the American seabed exploration company Ocean Infinity to Malaysia to discuss a ‘no find, no fee’ proposal for a new search for the missing plane.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 went missing on March 8, 2014 with 239 passengers and crew on board. It was en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

While some debris has been found that the Malaysian authorities say is from the missing plane, neither MH370 nor its voice and data recorders have been located.

Loke promised on Sunday that he would do everything possible to gain Cabinet approval to sign a new contract with Ocean Infinity for the search for MH370 to resume as soon as possible. He said he was confident that the Cabinet would give its approval.

V.P.R. Nathan (left), whose wife, Anne Daisy, was a passenger on MH370, presents Ocean Infinity’s new proposal to Anthony Loke.

“We are waiting for Ocean Infinity to provide a suitable date and I will meet them any time that they are ready to come to Malaysia,” Loke said on Sunday (March 3).

He said that, as transport minister, and representing the Malaysian government, he was at the MH370 remembrance event not just to express the government’s solidarity with the next of kin but “as a commitment and a promise that the search will go on”.

Grace Subathirai Nathan, whose mother, Anne Daisy, was on board MH370, said of the new development: “It’s a step in the right direction. It’s at least some progress from where we’ve been; it’s been at a standstill for so many years …

“We hope that the search resumes soon and we hope that this search is the last. We hope the plane is found.”

Jacquita Gonzales, whose husband Patrick Gomes was an in-flight supervisor on MH370, said: “I’m happy. It’s good news, a step in the right direction for us to have closure and to find the plane.”

Gonzales emphasised the next of kin’s concern about making aviation safe.

Grace said during Sunday’s event: “We, the next of kin of the passengers and crew on MH370, strongly believe that the search for this plane extends far beyond our long suffering, our need for closure, and extends to the greater question of aviation safety.

“Every time each and every one of you or your loved ones take to the skies you should have some guarantee, some confidence, that your plane or the plane your loved ones are on will not vanish into thin air.

“MH370 is not history. It’s the future of aviation safety.”

K.S. Narendran, whose wife, Chandrika, was on board the plane, sent a message via a video link. He said that treating MH370 as an anomalous event and adopting a ‘business as usual’ stance was to normalise a safety threat as an acceptable travel and business risk.

“We don’t yet know why the plane disappeared or where,” he said. “A recurrence of an MH370-like event is a possibility and could endanger passengers’ lives. This is clearly unacceptable.”

Narendran said he believed a fitting tribute to those passengers not in their midst would be for the travelling public to approach their governments, the airlines they patronise, and the regulatory authorities, to commit the full force of their power and resources to find answers.

“To be clear, the search for the plane and the truth is in our collective interest and cannot be an appeasement response to address the entreaties of MH370 families only,” Narendran said.

Narendran notes that, in the months following the disappearance of MH370, Anwar Ibrahim, then the most prominent opposition leader in Malaysia, was “a pillar of solidarity”, and a strident voice championing the cause of truth about MH370.

“Today, as prime minister, he must lead the quest to find answers and not become a lesson in silence that his government then emulates,” Narendran said.

He said that, while the families may have reached a settlement with their emotions, their search for answers hadn’t ended. While questions remained, there could never be comprehensive closure, he said.

“Opacity and invisibility of authorities don’t make the questions go away,” he added. “It doesn’t dissolve responsibility.

“Sympathy and solidarity from those in power mean something only if accompanied by actions to address the source of pain in people. We wish to see action.”

Narendran said he welcomed Anthony Loke’s latest announcement as it set out intentions, but he noted that the proposal for a new search came from Ocean Infinity.

“What if there were no proposal from a private firm?” Narendran said after the announcement. “My guess is the government would have stayed comfortably silent.”

Malaysia bears absolute responsibility, Narendran says.

“It is fortunate to have steered the future of the search in a way as to make it seem that the ‘no find, no fee’ option is the only one and that the burden of zeroing on a search area is on a private party, and that the government can just be the auditor and judge of the merits of a search proposal and the controller of the purse,” he told Changing Times.

Grace Subathirai Nathan told those gathered on Sunday: “I have gone on, but I haven’t moved on.”

She spoke about the events in her life since March 2014, including her involvement in the ‘search on’ campaign, which included trips to Australia, Madagascar, and Mauritius; being called to the Bar of England and Wales and the Bar in Malaysia; her wedding; and giving birth to two children.

“In 2017, my sister graduated as a doctor in England,” Grace said. “In all of the pictures of her graduation, my father did not smile because he missed my mother.”

Grace said she had always wanted her mother and father to walk her down the aisle, so, at her wedding, she carried photos of her on a bouquet of daisies.

“I had two very difficult pregnancies,” Grace said. “Both my children were born prematurely. I longed for my mother. I longed to be able to talk to her about all the things that I was going through and now, every time I look at my children, I think about her.

“I have learned to appreciate her in so many different ways now that I am a mother myself.”

Jacquita Gonzales said that every year, as March 8 approached, the memories of everything that happened on that day in 2014 came back as if it was only yesterday.

“We relive the agonising call from Malaysia Airlines to say that the plane has gone missing,” she said.

Speaking about her husband, she said that, as the years passed, his family continued to celebrate him through the memories they have of him.

“His grandson Raphael was three years old when it happened. Now he’s 13, a teenager, almost taller than me … Patrick now has two granddaughters, Alessandra, six years old, and Arya Shae, seven months old.

“He would be a doting grandfather like he was to Raphael. It’s sad that he’s not around now with us, but we keep the memories of him alive and constantly talk about him. He might be gone, but he’s not forgotten and never will be.”

K.S. Narendran at the 2019 remembrance event with Jacquita Gonzales and her granddaughter Alessandra.

Jiang Hui, whose mother, Jiang Cuiyun, was a passenger on MH370, was one of ten next of kin who travelled from China for Sunday’s event.

He spoke about the kindness and love that Chinese next of kin had witnessed during their darkest days.

During Sunday’s event, Jiang handed over a cheque to the Taiwanese Buddhist Tzu Chi Charity Foundation, which has helped numerous next of kin. The money was bequeathed by one of the next of kin who wanted to show his gratitude for the supported he received from foundation volunteers during his most difficult days after the disappearance of the plane.

Jiang described the handling of the disappearance of MH370 by the Malaysian government and Malaysia Airlines as chaotic and poor.

He also noted, however, that Malaysia and China were celebrating fifty years of diplomatic relations. “I believe that in resolving the issue of MH370, both the families and the governments of China and Malaysia can be part of a community with a shared future,” he said.

Jiang is one of about 40 Chinese next of kin who are suing five defendants including Malaysian Airline System (MAS) and Malaysia Airlines Berhad (MAB), which began operations as Malaysia’s national carrier on September 1, 2015, after MAS was dissolved from the Malaysian stock exchange in 2014 and ceased operations on August 31, 2015.

The other defendants are the aircraft manufacturer Boeing, its engine provider Rolls-Royce, and the German insurer Allianz Insurance.

The lawsuits include claims for compensation ranging from US$3 million to US$10 million. The next of kin have also asked the court to order each defendant to pay US$10 million in costs that would be used to help fund future searches for MH370.

The claimants have rejected individual compensation offers of US$380,000 dollars (US$160,000 from the Malaysian government and US$220,000 from Malaysia Airlines). The offers were rejected, Jiang says, because they did not stipulate the Malaysian government’s search obligations.

In November last year the Chinese next of kin wrote to Anwar Ibrahim, saying that they wanted to invest their own money or cooperate with capable individuals and companies, bear their own risks, and adopt the ‘no find, no fee’ system to initiate a new search for MH370.

Ten years on, there had been great progress in the development of fully automatic unmanned ships, unmanned underwater robot arrays, and submarine sonar real-time imaging systems and all were commercially available, the next of kin wrote.

The required time and cost had been significantly reduced, they said, and China already had the capability to conduct private commercial searches.

Bai Shuan Fu, whose wife, Hou Ai Qin, was on MH370, said on Sunday: “Over these ten years we have endured the torment of losing our loved ones day and night, constantly yearning for them.

“At the same time, we have been tirelessly seeking the truth. What happened to MH370? Where are our loved ones?

“So far, it remains an unsolved mystery. We don’t want mere speculation. We want evidence and the truth. Therefore we once again urge Malaysia and relevant agencies not to cease the investigation and to provide the truth to the families as soon as possible.”

Bai added: “No matter if it’s been ten years, twenty years, or even longer, as long as we’re alive we will not forget our loved ones. Nor will we cease our quest for the truth. We believe that eventually the truth will come to light.”

Sunday’s remembrance event included performances of song, poetry, and dance . There was also a recorded video made by next of kin in Australia.

One element of the event was the forget-me-not flower. There was also a message board and 239 jigsaw pieces with the names of those on board the missing plane.

V.P.R. Nathan at the message board.

The next of kin gathered in Kuala Lumpur lit 239 candles in memory of those on board MH370 and some of the relatives symbolically put pieces into a MH370 jigsaw.

Several items of debris that have been declared to be confirmed pieces from MH370, or are ‘highly likely’ or ‘almost certain’ to be from the plane were on display on Sunday.

Former senior investigator with Malaysia’s Air Accident Investigation Bureau Aslam Khan gave those gathered on Sunday a briefing about the debris that has been recovered.

He said that, during the time that he was with the Malaysian investigation team, they recovered more than 33 pieces of debris and all of them were examined.

American amateur investigator Blaine Alan Gibson, who has found, retrieved, and/or handed in 22 pieces of debris, said he supported Ocean Infinity’s proposal, but wants to see more areas of the southern Indian Ocean searched if the plane is not found.

Any search should include the area from 28.3°S to 33.2°S, which is the area suggested by oceanographer Charitha Pattiaratchi from the University of Western Australia in Perth, Gibson says.

“This area suggested by Professor Pattiaratchi includes Broken Ridge, which is a seafloor feature of canyons and trenches at the foot of a subsea slope,” Gibson added.

Gibson says Pattiaratchi’s drift analysis guided him in his search and led directly to the recovery of 22 debris items. Gibson found seven pieces himself and the other 15 were found by local people.

“Of those 22 pieces, 18 are in the official Annex 13 Safety Investigation Team report,” Gibson said. “Two more have already been delivered to Malaysia, one is still in Madagascar, ready to be sent to Malaysia, and one is in the process of being handed in.”

Blaine Gibson with debris found on an island in eastern Madagascar.

The full safety investigation report released by the Malaysian International Civil Aviation Organisation Annex 13 Safety Investigation Team for MH370 on July 30, 2018, stated that 27 significant pieces of debris had been recovered and examined at the time it was produced.

Five more pieces of debris are mentioned in a separate Annex 13 document. It’s stated that there was no conclusive evidence that these five pieces could be from MH370, although they appeared to be parts from an aircraft.

However, it is also stated in the document that one of the pieces was likely to be from MH370 based on the material it was made of and the visible part of the placard, which confirmed that the debris was a floor panel of a Boeing aircraft.

The report states that three items of debris – the flaperon that was found on Reunion island, and is still in the possession of the French authorities, a part of the right outboard flap, and a section of the left outboard flap – have been confirmed to be from MH370.

Seven pieces of debris, including some cabin interior items, were determined to be “almost certainly” from the plane.

The report adds that eight pieces of debris are “highly likely” to be from MH370.

The new Ocean Infinity proposal will now be studied by experts at the transport ministry. Malaysian transport ministers have long said that there needed to be “new credible evidence” before the government could proceed with another search.

Ocean Infinity says in its proposal that there is new credible information.

In 2018, Ocean Infinity spent more than three months searching for MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean. The company scoured, and collected data from, more than 112,000 square kilometres of ocean floor, which is far in excess of the initial 25,000-square-kilometre target and almost the same area as was examined in the previous search over a period of two and a half years.

The previous Australian-led underwater search was suspended on January 17, 2017, after an area spanning 120,000 square kilometres was scoured.

In its previous search, Ocean Infinity used a leased Norwegian vessel, Seabed Constructor, and its own Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), capable of operating in depths up to 6,000 metres.

It now has new robotic vessels that can be operated completely remotely, with no crew on board.

Ballet performance – ‘Hope’ – by dancers from Dance Space.

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