Alot of mystery surrounds this tragedy. The crew on board was an experienced one. No distress signal was given. There were no bomb threats. The weather was agreeable. In fact, the Boeing was the newest aircraft on the fleet and had been thoroughly checked. This particular aircraft seemed like the last plane on Earth to have had this accident, don't you agree?
The Aftermath But I'm not so interested in the technical side of the crash. It's the human effects that are intriguing. The immensity of the tragedy has shaken the whole nation of Singapore. Though I am not a Singaporean myself, I think many others outside of Singapore have been touched. Condolences from even those who did not know the victims came pouring in through the Net and newspapers.
Relatives of victims went out in two boats onto the river to pray, sing hymns, light incense and candles, toss flowers into the watery grave and bid their own private farewells. Two days after the crash, people were still hoping for the sign of any survivors. None were found. Only body parts and debris from the aircraft. The gruesome thing about it was that not a single whole corpse was found.
No one deserves this. Least of all our three teachers from Fairfield Methodist Secondary School who were on board that ill-fated plane. Ironically, they were not supposed to be on the MI 185 flight. Upon learning a colleague's sudden death, they had booked an earlier flight back home to attend the funeral.
As a friend said to me, "...people who were supposed to be on that flight were not...and worse, so many people who were not supposed to be on that flight, were...It's like God particularly chose 104 people and put them all in that plane..."
The ConspiracyIt seems like every plane crash invites its own conspiracy theories. The latest on the SilkAir crash is that there's a possiblity that human intervention caused it. The prime suspect is the pilot, Captain Tsu Way Ming, 41. Reports by investigators said he was facing financial difficulties and faced a series of disciplinary actions in the months before the crash and had been demoted because of one lapse. Mr Thomas Oey, 37, a lecturer, who lost his mother Bernice and brother Jonathan, said: "Tonight's meeting was a turning point after months of waiting. We know now the crash could have been caused by the pilot." My own late teacher's sister, Ms Lucy Koh, pointed out that since Captain Tsu had a clean record prior to these incidents, the airline should have been alerted that something was amiss.
As for me, I think that while it is right to search for the truth of what happened, it is unwise to be caught up in it such that we become desperate to blame someone for what happened. Find out what happened, but don't let your emotions mislead you into the Blame Game. Accept what has happened and move on with your life.