Medan, Indonesia – Herlina Panjaitan has not modified her cell quantity since her son, 25-year-old Firman Chandra Siregar, disappeared 10 years in the past.
Siregar, an Indonesian, was a passenger on MH370, the Malaysia Airways flight that disappeared 40 minutes into its flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014 and has by no means been heard from.
It can be crucial for 69-year-old Panjaitan that his quantity stays the identical, simply in case his youngest son tries to name him.
“That's the quantity I'm utilizing in the intervening time and that's the quantity Firman has for me. I'm nonetheless hoping he'll name and ask me to go get him, wherever he’s,” he informed Al Jazeera.
Panjaitan had traveled to Kuala Lumpur from his dwelling in Medan, Indonesia along with his daughter-in-law and grandson the evening earlier than Siregar left for Beijing, so the household may spend a while collectively earlier than beginning his new job with a oil firm in China. .
Earlier than leaving for the airport to catch the evening flight, Panjaitan helped her son pack his issues, together with a bag stuffed with heat garments for Beijing's freezing winter.
The household took photos collectively, with Siregar beaming as he performed along with his grandson.
The images now grasp on the wall of the household's dwelling in Medan, which is throughout the Straits of Malacca from Malaysia.
“I informed him to watch out and to name me when he will get to Beijing,” Panjaitan mentioned. “There was no sense that something was going to go mistaken.”
The subsequent morning, Panjaitan acquired a name from his daughter who labored on the Indonesian embassy in Mexico asking if she had heard the information about MH370.
“She simply mentioned she heard she had misplaced contact with air visitors management,” he recalled. “I didn't know what to assume.”
Panjaitan and his household instantly rushed to the Kuala Lumpur Worldwide Airport (KLIA) the place the households of the 239 passengers and crew on board had been knowledgeable in regards to the airplane's mysterious disappearance.
“That's once I began to imagine he was actually gone,” she mentioned.
Ten years after departure from KLIA, the destiny of the airplane has turn into one of many greatest mysteries in aviation.
Nobody has been in a position to say for positive what occurred to the Boeing 777 after Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah signed off from Malaysian air visitors management with the phrases “Good evening, Malaysia three seven zero”, and ready to enter in Vietnamese airspace.
In line with satellite tv for pc information, somewhat than persevering with to Beijing, the airplane veered sharply off track, flying again via northern Malaysia and coasting off Indonesia, earlier than heading south in the direction of the deep waters of the Indian Ocean.
Panjaitan mentioned he referred to as Siregar's cellphone after listening to the information and that he had rung a number of instances however nobody had answered.
Two weeks later, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak introduced that the airplane had “completed” its journey within the distant southern Indian Ocean.
“The Finest Little one”
Siregar, a graduate of Indonesia's prestigious Bandung Institute of Expertise, was the youngest of 5 youngsters – three boys and two women – and Panjaitan says he was “the very best”.
“That doesn't imply my different children aren't wonderful,” she defined. “One works as a prosecutor and one other is a diplomat, however Firman was simply the very best little one and my different youngsters perceive what I imply once I say that. He was so good, so nicely behaved, so respectful and so form.
“He by no means gave me any hassle as a baby, and he knew what to do and what to not do with out me telling him.
Earlier than going to Beijing, Siregar had launched his mom and household to his girlfriend and her dad and mom, who had traveled from Bandung to fulfill Panjaitan and her husband Chrisman.
“They mentioned they wished to get married and I used to be pleased that he had discovered his life accomplice,” she mentioned.
Six months after the airplane disappeared, Panjaitan and her husband went to Bandung to fulfill Siregar's girlfriend and gave her his blessing to maneuver on along with her life.
“We mentioned that if she wished to get married sooner or later, she ought to do it,” Panjaitan informed Al Jazeera. “He didn't say something, he simply cried. And we cried too, it was so unhappy.”
Many theories, few solutions
Infinite hypothesis has crammed the void left by the failure to seek out MH370.
Some say Captain Zaharie engineered a complicated murder-suicide plot to intentionally crash the airplane into the ocean.
Others recommend the airplane was hijacked, intentionally shot down, or suffered a technical malfunction that minimize off its communications programs and incapacitated the pilots resulting in its eventual crash.
Not one of the claims have been confirmed.
Searches proved fruitless, together with a big underwater and aerial search in an space of 120,000 km² (46,332 sq miles) that value $147 million and was led by an Australian staff along with Malaysia and China.
The Malaysian authorities additionally launched a number of investigations that culminated in a 495-page report that was lastly launched in 2018. It discovered that, whereas the sport was doubtless, it was not potential to say who was accountable.
Final week, forward of the tenth anniversary, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim reiterated that Malaysia was able to reopen an investigation if new proof emerged.
Malaysia's transport minister, Anthony Loke, additionally mentioned he plans to fulfill US marine robotics firm Ocean Infinity to debate a brand new underwater analysis proposal.
Panjaitan mentioned his household welcomes any renewed investigation.
Some fragments of the airplane washed up on the seashores of East Africa, together with a flaperon that’s a part of the wing, however there was nothing extra substantial.
For Panjaitan that leaves room for hope.
“If it crashed, why haven't they discovered it? It's an enormous airplane. What's essential is that, alive or not, we nonetheless have hope that they are going to be discovered,” he mentioned.
“I hope Firman is alive, and we will go decide him up the place he’s. Once I see him once more, the very first thing I'm going to do is give him a giant hug.”
