"Oh My God – It Has Happened Again." MH370 Families Relive The Pain Of Loss
It's deja vu for the families of passengers onboard QZ8501 as they follow the latest plane crash with sadness, understanding, and a tinge of jealousy.
"Oh my God – it has happened again."
American Sarah Bajc, whose partner Philip Wood was on MH370, told of the horror she felt learning another jet had vanished, a moment she said to herself.
themalaysianinsider.com"It is just like what happened nine months ago when I heard the news of MH370."
Steven Wang's 57-year-old mother was on the flight which remains one of the biggest aviation mysteries ever.
themalaysianinsider.com"I can feel the desperation that the next-of-kin are suffering now. It is terrible. It is horrible."
Wang emerged as one of the most vociferous campaigners for answers on how MH370 went missing on March 8, one hour into a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. An unofficial leader of hundreds of Chinese relatives who packed into often rowdy meetings with airline officials in the weeks after the disappearance, Wang was a sombre shadow of his former self after months of anguish.
themalaysianinsider.com"You just instantly start to shake because all that flood of emotion of what we went through on March 8 all comes back...You can't even control it. It's impossible. It is just a physical response."
Speaking from the Malaysian capital, Sarah Bajc likened her emotions on hearing about MH370 with the loss of both the AirAsia jet and MH17, another Malaysia Airlines fight that went down in strife-torn eastern Ukraine in July with 298 people on board. "Then you start thinking what those poor families are going through and you think 'Oh my God' – nobody has to go through that."
themalaysianinsider.com"The last few days have been a torment. It's brought everything back. We're just reliving what we've gone through...It's a horrible nightmare."
Danica Weeks, whose husband Paul Weeks was on MH370, said of the reliving the nightmare all over again.
cnn.com"I empathise with them because I’ve been there too...I want to tell them to take care of themselves."
Xu spoke to AFP from her Beijing home as she welcomed another MH370 relative Dai Shuqin, whose younger sister Dai Shulin was on the plane, along with three generations of her family.
themalaysianinsider.com"You just have to call on your close friends and family...You need to lean on them because they are basically the only way you get through this...Nine months, none of us are as strong as we used to be."
"Now the victims' families can console themselves and give the victims a proper burial. The families can now have a closure and have a peace of mind which I am dying for."
Selamat Omar, whose son Mohamad Khairul Amri Selamat was on MH370, said the news on AirAsia would provide some solace to victims' families.
"It looks like there could be no survivors after the QZ8501 crashed into the sea. I praise the Indonesian authorities and neighbouring countries for finding the plane in less than 50 hours after the plane vanished," he said.
"I'm almost a little jealous in a way because, you know, at least they have this ability to put some closure to it."
Few people would consider those with loved ones on AirAsia Flight QZ8501 lucky, but Sarah Bajc has a particular perspective. Her partner, Philip Woods, was on board Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared without a trace almost 10 months ago.
cnn.com"We're still in limbo. There's still no evidence as to what happened to the plane."
Malaysian Airlines plane MH370 disappeared on 8 March 2014 with 239 people onboard. Unlike QZ8501, the incident still remains a mystery even after nine months.