Letting go of horror and grief

It had been a search that had gripped the world and hogged the headlines, but almost 20 days later, the fear and trepidation finally came to an abrupt end. Hope was brutally killed off with a terse statement that offered no closure.

For the families and friends of the passengers on the ill-fated flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, agony was renewed when they were told their loved ones were never coming back, but were lost on a flight that "ended in the southern Indian Ocean".

The blame and shame quickly started with the families' grief turning to anger, and with various NGOs calling for the boycott of both the airline and its parent country.