Okay, I walked pass the Immigration check point smoothly without any problem and the timing was perfect to board the plane. The flight, MALAYSIA AIRLINES No. MH370 was waiting for us at Gate C35 that night. As we walked pass the free duty shops in the terminal and closing in to Gate C35, I saw the plane that would take us to our destination. I reckoned it was such a small plane for a six hour journey. It was an Airbus for sure. ‘Can it withstand the long journey?’, I asked myself.
Anyway as I was lining up before entering Gate C35, there was a little commotion going on in front of me between a passenger and the Immigration officer who was handling the last checking and screening of hand luggage and boarding passengers before entering the plane.
It looked as though the passenger was really annoyed with the treatment he received from the officer. He kept telling the officer, ‘Wah kamu tak tahu saya siapa ya. Buat saya macam ini ya.’ (You don’t who I am. You can do this to me). This kept going on for some time and as I was lining behind him it really looked like he was provoking the officer to make the mistake of replying back at him, which the officer didn’t do. He kept his cool. Apparently the Chinese man passenger wanted the officer to put his things back in the hand luggage and asked the officer to apologise over the matter. And apparently the subject matter that started the whole commotion was over a toothpaste!
What irked me most was the way the passenger talking loudly so that everyone can hear how authoritative he was. I felt at that moment how I wish I had the power to stop the clock and slapped the annoying man silly with a large big trout!
As I boarded the plane, my seat was by the window seat no. 35H. Mmm… same number as the boarding gate C35. I am not a superstitious kind of person but anyway the similarity does make me wonder.
So, at around 12.50 AM on the 9th January 2008, Flight MH370 took off from KLIA heading to Beijing Capital International Airport. It was quite a smooth take off. For me taking off is always a horrific experience. It is just like a near death experience to me every time a plane is taking off.
As the plane increases its altitude, I looked down by the window thinking of home and family. And that day was a very significant day to me and my family as it was my wife’s birthday. Happy Birthday… sayang.
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Time: 2.00 AM …
The plane was slightly shaking and the seat belt sign was switched on by the pilot. I knew this was trouble. True enough just a while after that the plane was experiencing turbulence. It was rough and tough. I couldn’t sleep and kept looking at my watch. Time was moving slow very, very slow.
…
Overall I could rate the journey as hectic and troubling. There was a time when the cabin crew were asked to be seated by the pilot and by that I already knew what it meant which was the plane will shake even harder. And it did. It felt just like in a motor boat going through heavy waves. But the thing was everybody was calm unlike me who felt nervous as hell. Maybe everyone else was sleepy, I said to myself.
As for me I just couldn’t sleep during flights. I tried reading but I didn’t feel good and listening to music was even worse. It felt like committing the biggest sin ever to listen to music at time like that. So what I did was I thought of God and kept praising God in my heart.
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Time: 5.00 AM …
Breakfast was served. I forgot to mention that earlier on just after take off we all were served with a turkey sandwich with butter. It was just nice. Breakfast too was okay to me. I had fried rice with fish in tomato sauce, that's what I think it was. And I consumed it within minutes. While being served with breakfast there was an announcement over the air that hot drinks would not be served due to the unstable condition of the plane. Imagine that, how bad could it be?
Just around 5.30 AM the plane was already in its final descent and as it was going down it was shaking quite hard for a couple of times. And then around 5.50 AM there was another announcement confirming that the plane was going to land as per schedule. At last!
As I looked over the window, I saw the city lights and road lights over Beijing. It was still dark when the plane touched down on the ground. I reckoned it was a hard landing especially during the braking. Then after that the plane was moving towards the terminal. It was only after almost 20 minutes then the plane finally halted at the terminal at exactly around 6.35 AM.
