KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) – Less than five months ago, they had rushed to Kuala Lumpur International Airport – anxious relatives with a hope in their hearts, however faint, that a missing jumbo jet with their loved ones had not crashed, and would eventually be found.
This week, throngs of relatives came again with no hope, just a chilling certainty that everyone on board another Malaysia Airlines had perished.
They shed tears, sobbed and looked for comfort to ease the all-too-familiar pain of loss that’s visited a nation dealing with the second air disaster this year.
But the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 that was downed over rebel-controlled eastern Ukraine is playing out in starkly different mood compared to the anguish surrounding Flight 370 that disappeared March 8.
CHAOS AND ANGER OF MH370: