(Image source from: Who were the five Indians on the missing Malaysia Airline?})
The most perilous time of a flight is usually during its takeoff and landing, which is when things tend to go awry. In that case, how would you explain the sudden, abrupt disappearance of a plane cruising seven miles above the planet from air traffic control screens? This is exactly what happened to the Boeing 777 flying over the waters between Malaysia's east coast and southern Vietnam on Saturday morning.
The abrupt disappearance of the aircraft well into its flight above the South China Sea has left the aviation experts deeply baffled. Despite various conjectures, no evidence has been found yet to affirm any of the theories put forth by the Malaysian government. They say it might take the investigators months to find out what happened to the Boeing 777 flying 239 passengers from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Sadly, the Flight MH370 had five Indian nationals on board, the fate of whom remains in doubt.
Here are the profiles of the missing Indians:
Muktesh Mukherjee: The 42-year-old Canadian resident of Indian origin and vice-president of the China operations of Xcoal Energy and Resources was flying with his wife Xiaomo Bai, a Chinese on Saturday morning. Incidentally, Muktesh is the grandson of Mohan Kumaramangalam, a minister in Indira Gandhi's Cabinet, who too died in an air crash in May 1973.
Kranti Shirsat: The 44-year-old former college teacher from Pune, Kranti was headed to North Korea where her husband Prahlad runs an NGO.
Chandrika Sharma: The 51-year-old Chandrika, a social activist from Chennai, was on her way to Mongolia to attend a regional conference on food and agriculture organized by the FAO.
Vinod Kolekar, 63; Chetana Kolekar, 59 and Swanand Kolekar (23): This family of three from Mumbai were on flying to Beijing to grace the convocation ceremony of their elder son, Samved (29) who finishedhis PhD in astrophysics recently. It was Chetana's first flight. Vinod was formerly employed with an automobile major in Mumbai.
AW: Suchorita Choudhury
