Azrina had been with Malaysia Airlines for twenty years and had gradually worked her way up the ladder. In a cabinet in her living room she proudly kept a model aircraft from the Malaysia fleet. Looking forward to being reunited with her three-year-old daughter Arisha when she got home, Azrina knew the rest of her family had been busy making plans to celebrate Eid together with her. A big and wonderful family meal would mark the end of the fasting period.
Forty-two-year-old flight attendant Lee Hui Pin had made sure all the overhead luggage compartments were closed as the plane readied for take-off that morning. Born in Kelantan, Malaysia, Hui Pin was a keen swimmer, but her greatest passion was cooking Kelantanese dishes. Following the disappearance of Flight MH370, she had considered quitting her much-loved job. But she had wanted to be a flight attendant and had worked for Malaysia Airlines since she was nineteen; she had no idea what else she would do or if she would ever find a job she enjoyed as much.
Although she knew that the chances of such an event happening again were minimal, the disappearance of Flight MH370 had brought home to her that the job was not without risk. However, the salary was excellent, and she had responsibilities at home—three of them. Together with her husband, Wong Kin Wah, Hui Pin had three young children to maintain. Her eldest, Wong Rui Qi, was thirteen, Hong Kai was ten, and Shen Kai only two. Her much-loved steady job provided for everything they needed. She couldn’t just quit. So for the time being she had to set aside the idea of looking for a change of career.
Forty-year-old stewardess Mastura Binti Mustafa was from the town of Seremban south of Kuala Lumpur. She too was devoted to her job and, like Hui Pin, Mastura was mother to a ten-year-old son, Mukhriz, and had worked for the airline company for almost twenty years. Mastura was also a keen cook. When she was on any of the long-haul flights like this one, she would be away from home for four or five days, so she would cook her son’s meals in advance to make sure he ate properly. Mastura’s brother, who worked for Malaysia Airlines as an engineer, and his wife were taking care of Mukhriz. Just before she had boarded the plane that morning she messaged her sister-in-law to let her know that she was on her way home.
Forty-year-old Chong Yee Pheng had been brought up as a Christian and was the youngest in a large family. Her parents and some of her brothers and sisters lived in Ipoh in the north of Malaysia. Eighteen years ago, at the age of twenty-two, her dream to see the world came true when she was taken on as a flight attendant by Malaysia Airlines. In her two decades of working for the airline, the attractive flight attendant had just about seen it all and posed at all the famous landmarks around the world. But she always loved to go home again, to smell familiar smells and indulge in family feasts and gossip. The plane had taken off and home was just fourteen hours away.
Steward Shaikh Mohd Noor Bin Mahmood was aged forty-four and married to Madiani Mahdi, two years his junior. Years earlier they had met on this same flight route, from Kuala Lumpur to Amsterdam. His wife was also a Malaysia Airlines flight attendant and she had been impressed by Noor and his romantic notions. Their love blossomed after that flight and they had always tried to arrange their schedules so they could fly together, swapping with colleagues whenever they could.
Two years after they met on the Amsterdam–Kuala Lumpur route, the couple were married. Noor already had three children—aged six, eleven and thirteen from a previous marriage—but still the couple wanted a child together and Madiani soon became pregnant. Their daughter, Siti Darwysha Zulaika, was now two years old. After Zulaika was born, the couple frantically tried to swap with other flight attendants, but now their objective was not to get matching flights but to arrange alternate shifts, so they could take turns to look after their child.
Like so many others working for Malaysia Airlines, flight stewardess Hamfazlin Sham Binti Mohamedarfin was shocked after the disappearance of MH370. Her father had asked her to quit the job, deeming it too dangerous, but she loved her work and, like so many others, she thought the odds of something similar happening again were next to none. Her two sons, eight-year-old Haiqal and Hazim, who was two, were too young to understand that a plane had suddenly gone missing and did not realise that only fate had spared their mother that day.
Hamfazlin herself knew all too well what a close call it had been—she could have easily been rostered on the doomed flight. Since the MH370’s disappearance, she phoned her husband, Ahmad, each time before she boarded a plane to tell him that she loved him. She had done the same on 17 July.
It had been Nur Shazana Binti Mohamed Salleh’s childhood dream to become a flight attendant and she had applied for a job at Malaysia Airlines more than once before she was finally taken on. She had worked with them for nine years now. A single woman, born in Penang and the eldest of four children, her parents’ dream was to see her married, but their daughter loved to travel, and building a relationship was difficult when you were in a different country nearly every other day.
She was thirty-one years old, loved football and loved her life. She was in no rush. Her father had asked her to quit the job because he was afraid something might happen to her, but she had refused. Even pedestrians could die, she told him.
Being a flight attendant was Angeline Premila Radjandaran’s first and only job; she had been taken on straight after finishing university. Only twenty years old at the time, she had never looked back. For ten years now the flight attendant had worked for Malaysia Airlines and she often graced the airline’s inflight magazine. Her good looks were also the reason she was frequently called on to promote the company at events.
Often away from her two younger brothers and parents, who lived in Klang, a city one hour south-west of the capital, Kuala Lumpur, Angeline would keep in touch through social networks; the whole family often joined in ‘group chats’. Being born just one year before her younger brother, Murphy, they had gone to the same schools, had mutual friends and were close. The only creature Angeline was closer to was her newly adopted four-month-old beagle, Lexi. She loved him to bits. Before take-off she had texted Murphy to please take good care of Lexi until she got back. He promised her he would.
Chapter 4
Ukraine, November–December 2013
Viktor Yanukovych’s meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin on Saturday 9 November 2013 was held in utmost secrecy. For six years Ukraine had been constructing an Association Agreement with the EU and it was to be signed at the end of November at a special summit in Lithuania. The summit was considered a critical juncture and signing the agreement would show that Ukraine under Yanukovych’s leadership would rather opt for further integration with the EU than join a Russia-centred Eurasian customs union.
What was discussed in Moscow on that day in November remains a secret, but it is likely that Yanukovych’s mind was made up by the time he left Putin’s chambers. Some said later that he was blackmailed by the Russians and was offered a deal he couldn’t refuse; others accused the EU and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of leaving the Ukrainian leader with no other option than to seal his fate with Putin. The IMF had presented very stiff terms for loans to the penniless Ukraine, and Kiev felt the conditions it demanded were simply impossible to fulfil.