Michael Bakx
Staff Writer
Sunday, March 8 was the anniversary of the missing Malaysian airlines flight 370. The search continues to go on in the vast 23,000-square-mile priority zone in the southern Indian Ocean.
On the day of the anniversary, a report revealed that the battery for the locator beacon on the data recording black box had expired a year before the plane had begun its journey from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and then mysteriously vanished on March 8, 2014. Family members of the missing 239 people assembled and organized a public remembrance with prayers, message walls, and video links for overseas relatives. Prime Minister Najib Razak said in a statement, “Today, we stand united in remembering and honoring the 239 people, including 50 Malaysians, our prayers are with them and their loved ones left behind — whose sorrow we share.”
Exactly a year from the day the plane went missing, an independent investigative group released a 584-page report detailing what’s known about the missing plane, which was not much. The report stated, “The sole objective of the investigation is the prevention of future accidents or incidents, and not for the purpose to apportion blame or liability.”
With little to no leads on the disappearance of flight 370 and its passengers, Malaysian airlines and relatives of the passengers are growing concerned that the plane may never be found. Chinese relatives of passengers aboard missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 pray at the Thean Hou temple in Kuala Lumpur.
Chinese families are still awaiting approval to hold a commemorative event in Beijing. Possible event venues include Beijing Capital International Airport, Flight 370’s destination the Yonghe Temple, a well-known Tibetan Buddhist monastery also called the Lama Temple, and the Malaysian embassy.
Family members have applied to have events held to commemorate the lives of the passengers of flight 370 yet they have still not gotten a reply.
Dai Shuqin had three generations of her family on the plane. “This is the one-year anniversary. It is very important to us. We have to do something for our relatives; we cannot be cold and not care. We can’t be like that. So we will go to the embassy. Some will go to the Lama Temple,” Shuqin said.
Drew Lenz, a senior here at Foran High School, said, “It’s unfortunate that there is no hard evidence or proof as to what has happened to the flight and I wish there was more funding towards this cause and my heart goes out to the families of those lost.”
In late January, a representative for Malaysian airlines officially reported the incident to be an accident and to this day, the location of Malaysian Flight 370 remains unknown.
