KUALA LUMPUR, March 14 — Philip Wood, an American divorcee, was planning a new life in Kuala Lumpur with his fiancée and nearly missed his flight if it was not for her reminder from Beijing.
Norli Akmar Hamid had just posted a picture of one of her five cats sitting on her suitcase she had packed for her long-delayed honeymoon.
And a group of Chinese artists had capped off their exhibition here with a lunch earlier in the day of duck soup, steamed fish and braised pork.
All of them boarded Malaysia Airlines’ (MAS) MH370 on March 8 along with 206 other passengers and 12 aircrew. Neither they nor the plane have been seen since.
The story of their last hours — related in a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report — looms large even as the world focuses on finding the jetliner and figuring out what has become a mystery that has transfixed the world.
But the small and ordinary moments that led to them taking the red-eye flight bound for Beijing tell a bigger story about the many different people onboard the flight.
Wood, 51, an employee with International Business Machines Corp, frequently travelled between the Chinese capital and Kuala Lumpur until it was time for him and his long-time partner Sarah Bajc, 48, to make a permanent move to Malaysia.
According to the WSJ, Wood was to fill in a new role as a technical storage executive in IBM, a software giant in Kuala Lumpur, upon return from Beijing; but this time together with Bajc, an expatriate teacher, who was almost done packing up for their big move before Wood’s got back.
The couple were ecstatic about the new adventure as Wood had found them an apartment close to their new workplaces in the midst of bustling Kuala Lumpur, the WSJ reported.
Bajc related that her fiancée misread the flight itinerary thinking he was to board MH370 on Saturday night, but Bajc discovered the error Friday afternoon and informed him gather his belongings and make for KLIA that night.
“All prepped except my clothes. Kitchen, bar, knickknacks. Set out cleaned ready to pack,” said Bajc, in a text message to the WSJ, and related that the heavy lifting had left her with a backache.
“I’m ready to be there to help...Understand. Tomorrow I’ll rub your back... thank you for working so hard! You are greatly appreciated and loved!” was Wood’s last reply before boarding MH370 which took off from the runway at 12.41am on Saturday.
As for Norli, 33, and her husband Muhammad Razahan Zamani, 24, who got married in October 2012, the trip to Beijing was a much-needed getaway as Norli was recovering from the impact of miscarriage that happened merely weeks before their travel.
The getaway was to mark a new beginning for the couple, said Norli’s boss known only as Ediana. Norli, works as an administrative assistant at aviation maintenance and repair company, Prima Elite Technology while Razahan was between jobs as a sales assistant.
Norli was behind work and Ediana reminded her that she has to draft an important letter to a client. About two hours before boarding Norli apologised to Ediana on Whatsapp asking for another chance.
Ediana replied on Saturday morning telling Norli, that the letter can be completed later.
A group of 24 artists and 11 relatives and handlers from a medley of provinces in China were looking forward for a tour of the capital city after an engaging three-day painting and calligraphy exhibition at the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall here last week.
Among the two dozen were also reputed artists who showcased their intricate art forms in the exhibition co-organised by Beijing-based China Calligraphy Artists Association and Malaysia’s Art Peninsular Enterprise.
Although the hall is a stone’s throw away from some to the city attractions, the scorching sun and hazy weather kept most of them indoors for most of the week.
The predicament was resolved after it rained in the wee hours on Friday making it a perfect day to tour the city and to shop for memorabilia.
One of the artist Zheng Wenbin, told the US-based newspaper, that they has visited the Twin Towers and the royal palace, and spent the little time left shopping for local products.
Zheng recounted that they had their first satisfying meal in days that day and the plans of one artist, Zhu Junyan, 41 from China’s western Xinjiang region, intended to stay in Beijing to visit the Central Academy of Fine Arts.
The group arrived almost four hours ahead of scheduled at KLIA for the midnight flight, as six of the 24 wanted to take a Shanghai-bound flight which was closer to home. Zheng was among the six on plane to Shanghai which left 30 minutes after MH370 departed.
The search for MH370 enters the seventh day today. The immense operations using aerial and naval assets of 12 nations has not turned up a single shred of evidence from MH370.
More reports have emerged today; the latest is that the jumbo jet may have diverted from its intended destination and traveled west over Malaysia as far as the Indian Ocean.
According to a Reuters report, satellites had picked up faint electronic pulses from the aircraft after its disappearance, which it said suggested that the plane’s maintenance troubleshooting system were “switched on and ready to communicate” with satellites at the time.
This latest data conflicts, however, with claims from Malaysian authorities yesterday evening disputing reports in the Wall Street Journal that had pointed to the same possibility that the plane flew on for four more hours.
WSJ’s report had pointed to data allegedly transmitted from the Boeing 777’s Rolls Royce engines, which was described as “inaccurate” by acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein and confirmed by both the engine manufacturer Rolls Royce and Boeing Co.
WSJ has since corrected its report, however, admitting it had wrongly cited US investigators as basing their suspicions on signals from the plane’s Rolls Royce engines.
