KUALA LUMPUR, March 9 — A sister of one of the passengers on board Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH370, S. Puspanathan, 34, did not expect a “Happy Birthday” message from him would be his last to her.

S. Thenmoli, 26, an operations executive with a private company, here, said her brother sent the message via Whatsapp: “Take Care, tot if u cum today (Friday), we go for dinner; Anyway see u after I back from China and Wish u advance happy birthday”.

She said the message was sent several hours before her brother boarded the Boeing 777-200 aircraft which was reported missing early yesterday morning while flying over the South China Sea enroute from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members.

Puspanathan worked with a private company here and took the flight to Beijing on work matters.

“Today is my 26th birthday and I have no other siblings. Now, I really miss my brother,” she said.

Thenmoli said Puspanathan, who often went overseas on company business, would contact his family via e-mail but this time his family did not receive any calls from him.

Puspanathan was married with two sons, P.Varmer, three, and P.Thashuvarmen, one, while his wife, K. Sridevi, 30, is a housewife.

Thenmoli said Varmer often asked why his father did not contact them. She said her family was now traumatised following the missing plane as her brother was a responsible person.

Nonetheless, Thenmoli was confident that her brother would return to the family and take her for dinner as he had promised in his message.

Flight MH370, carrying 227 passengers, including two infants, and 12 crew, went missing en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing about an hour after taking off from the KL International Airport at 12.41 am yesterday. 

The flight should have landed at Beijing International Airport at 6.30 am on the same day. — Bernama