Its day 3 ( dah! As you see. This post was written on day 3..now its day 16 or something…) and I’m convinced that we have a new flying Dutchmen, a very new modern age version to that matter...the all new Flying Malay…as the story goes to say the MH370, a Boing 777-200ER of the Malaysian Airlines took off from Kuala Lumpur heading for Beijing, seven hours away but never landed in Beijing no anywhere else, least to our knowledge.
Some say it crashed into the Ocean as the last known point of contact via comms and radar was over the Ocean. May be so may be not…but what seems to me is that the flight itself has become a Phantom. A flight that took off but never landed, 230 souls in flight, flying towards Beijing but will never land…on air, in flight eternally…never to land…the Flaying Malay…
I’m sure many of you have seen the pix on media of the oil slick that turned out to be from a cargo ship (btw, which ship was leaking a bloody 9km long trail? No wonder the Oceans are dying…) and then the floating something that the Vietnamese pictured…now , it looked more like an emergency exit of a plane, the sort that’s next to you when you sit next to an emergency exit that the crew tells you in quick 3 mins how to operate in the case of an emergency…I once sat next to it and when I was being briefed I told the air hostess it was too much for me and instead of following the procedure, I would simply scream out of fear hence she cannot expect much from me in the unlikely (as they say, in the briefing…now ask that from a MH370 guy…) situation of an emergency…guess what, till recently she was a facebook friend of mine , before I said good bye to FB. Enough with my glorious life as a high flyer so it seems what the Vietnamese saw and pictured was or is not a ‘door’ of an airplane…
Leaving aside the technicalities and the business of speculating about what really happened, I must say I was surprised by the reaction closer to home of the soon to acknowledge, for now on the hold, tragedy…MR has already said that with the opening of Kottawa to Kaduwela stretch of the outer Colombo circular road and the opening of Mattala Royal King Rajapaksha International Domestic Airport, people has no need nor has the money to take up air travel ,hence avoiding such disasters while Namal baby MP, denied allegations of MR family buying major stakes of Malaysian Airlines, which is losing its share price faster than the rising price of Dhal but confirmed soon to inaugurate Carlton Pilot and Aviation School in Katuwana will automatically send its successful and not so successful graduates to work for Malaysian Airlines and all required is a letter from Namal baby or Mrs.MR.
Leader for life of the Opposition, Mr.Ranil Wicramasingha, when heard about the soon to acknowledge, for now on the hold tragedy, has apparently told to media that the loss of flight MH370 will not affect the UNP and within the next few months there will be a change of Govt. and it will be a UNP led government that will lead Sri Lankan to the ruin but added he will still be the leader even when the messages of condolences are sent to families of victims for real, some day.
But the best statement came out from the Flower Road based, so called civil society of Sri Lanka…and it came in the form of a joint communiqué, signed by many organizations, most of which with its board members, donors and faithful numbering so much that all will fit into half dozen Three Wheelers ,let alone a Jet liner, including CPA,NPC and the plethora of NGOs fighting for ‘rights’ who went on to say they hope the Govt. of Sri Lanka will come out with the truth and demanded that the Govt. take responsibility for not following the recommendations of the LLRC be implemented etc ,thus setting the stage for losing of the plane.
Yes, I know …you must be wondering what’s got to do with dismal human rights situation and the thriving industry of talking about it overseas with the Malaysian plane, well…beats me too...but the likes of Mrs.Nimalka Fernando will find some minute link to connect their shameless criticism with whatever issue that will give them some cheap coverage.
On the other hand, CPA with its plethora of propagandists will come up with few well-placed articles on what’s called an ‘award winning’ citizens (??) journalism website (where only few, mostly expatriate, Colombo 7 types contribute and comment) detailing how the missing plane will help the Government to gather more Chinese support for its development programs and call for an international (read few western nations here…) action against the Govt. here and soon as they see readership going down, they’ll start shouting their web has been blocked, e-mails hacked and their made to pay more for their Gin and Tonic at the Cheers Pub.
And so there goes the story of MH370,the flight to nowhere…I’m sure for next couple of weeks, most of the Sinhala Sunday papers, well the regular bima and waya types will dedicate more space to missing plane stories ,thus diverting from the weekly doze of murder, rape , ghost and Ravana stories.
Mosquitoes are biting me and I fear more I go on, more boring this post is going to be and I don’t people searching the internet for the lost plane to waste their precious time, reading here while they could spend their valuable time, searching elsewhere…saving lives and securing the future of civil aviation, especially Malaysian Airlines which soon will fly to Mattala and will sport a Carlton (CSN) logo on its tail etc.
