Ever since her father Andrew Nari’s disappearance, Miss Maira Elizabeth Nari, 19, has been sending notes to him on Twitter and Instagram, telling him she was waiting for him.
Her father is the chief steward of Flight MH370 which disappeared on March 8 last year while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew on board.
However, news of a piece of an airplane wing — called a flaperon — that washed ashore on La Reunion island late last month has left Miss Nari and her family confused and frustrated, reported the New York Post.
International investigators did not immediately confirm the findings, calling for more analysis.
But the mixed messages have caused confusion and frustration among friends and relatives of people on the flight.
“I don’t know what I felt at that time,” said Miss Nari, a college student, adding that part of her hoped the debris was from the plane and part of her hoped it was not.
‘I LOVE YOU, DADDY’
Her love notes to her dad has captured the attention of the world — she now has more than 92,000 followers on Twitter and over 23,000 on Instagram.
During Christmas, she wrote on Instagram, “I love you, daddy. Have a blessed Christmas with the rest of the crew and passengers.”
She described Twitter as a diary.
“It feels good to know that people actually care for you,” she said, noting that it is also weird to have the attention.
A recent cartoon of the wrecked aircraft in French magazine Charlie Hebdo, however, angered her.
The satirical magazine mocked the discovery of the flaperon that had been recently found, reported The Star.
The cover of the French weekly appeared to show two dismembered hands touching coconuts, which are actually a pair of disembodied breasts, reported Express, a UK newspaper.
The front page reads: “We’ve found a bit of the pilot and the air hostess.”
Two onlookers are seen in the background celebrating.
Miss Nari said: “It is unethical of the magazine and disgusting... I cannot believe that such a company or people (behind the magazine) still exist!”
Relatives of passengers who were onboard the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 are stopped by policemen as they try to enter the Malaysia Airlines office in Beijing.
Chinese relatives of passengers aboard missing flight MH370 expressed anger and disbelief on Thursday, Aug 6.
Malaysia's prime minister said wreckage found on a French Indian Ocean island was from the plane.
Most of the passengers aboard the flight were Chinese, and around a dozen gathered outside the Beijing offices of Malaysia Airlines, with emotions running high.
"I don't believe this latest information about the plane, they have been lying to us from the beginning," said Zhang Yongli, whose daughter was on board.
"I know my daughter is out there, but they won't tell us the truth," he added.
Bao Lanfang, whose grandson was also on the plane, told reporters, "Everyone has been lying to us", before collapsing on the floor and crying.
The flight, with 239 people on board, vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March last year.
No evidence had been found until the debris, part of a wing known as a flaperon, washed up on the French territory of Reunion.
French officials used more cautious language, saying only that there was a "very high probability" the wreckage came from MH370.
Many Chinese relatives of MH370 passengers have consistently expressed beliefs that their loved ones are alive, perhaps being held at an unknown location.
Their belief comes despite the mounting evidence of a fatal crash.
Several gathering on Thursday held signs with a picture of an aeroplane, reading: "It will surely return safely".
On a social media group other relatives expressed similar sentiments, saying: "Don't believe them! They must have switched the debris! We do believe all our relatives will come back safe and sound!"
Elsewhere Chinese people took to social media sites to express scepticism about Malaysia, whose reputation has taken a knock in China for its handling of the incident.
Malaysia wanted to avoid the large amount of payment for the relatives so it announced that it found the debris in Reunion. We don't believe Malaysia," one comment on the Twitter-like Sina Weibo read.
More debris has been found washed up on Reunion Island, Sky News reported on August 2.
According to Sky News' David Bowden, the object was discovered in a different location to the flaperon which prompted speculation that it was from Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.
It was earlier reported that the debris resembled a plane door, but the news channel has now said that it can't be confirmed.
Experts confirmed that the flaperon was consistent with that of Boeing 777 although it is not known if it is from the missing jet.
The Transport Ministry said that MH370 investigators would only be able to inspect the flaperon after Monday because Malaysian authorities had to attend a meeting with the French Government before they could actually see the debris.
A view shows the Direction generale de l'armement (DGA) offices, where the France's BEA crash investigation agency will verify the plane debris found on Reunion Island, in Balma near Toulouse, France, July 30, 2015.
Police officers escort an airport vehicle transporting what is believed to be debris from a Boeing 777 plane that washed up on an Indian Ocean island at Saint-Marie's airport on the French Indian Ocean island of "Reunion" on July 31, 2015.
French gendarmes work on a oversized crate, believed to contain plane wreckage, in the cargo area of the airport in Saint-Denis on the French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion, in this still image taken from video shot on July 31, 2015.
A French gendarme (top partially hidden) works on a oversized crate in the cargo area of the airport in Saint-Denis on the French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion, July 31, 2015.
An aerial view taken on July 31, 2015 in Saint-Andre, on the French Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean, shows people walking on the shore where a plane debris and a piece from a luggage were found on July 29.
Johnny Begue, a member of a local shore cleaning association, poses on July 30, 2015 in Saint-Andre, French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion, with the remains of a suitcase found the day before on the same site.
He and his fellow association members found a two-metre (six-foot) long piece of plane wreckage that could be from the missing flight MH370.
France's air crash investigation agency is studying a piece of plane debris found on Reunion Island off the east coast of Africa but it was too early to say if it came from missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, a spokesman said on Wednesday.
A source familiar with the matter said the debris was most likely from a Boeing 777, but that it was not yet established if it was from MH370.
Malaysia's deputy transport minister said it was "almost certain" that the debris that washed up on Reunion island belongs to a Boeing 777 aircraft.
No trace has been found of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370, which disappeared in March last year carrying 239 passengers and crew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
The disappearance has become one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history.
"It is almost certain that the flaperon is from a Boeing 777 aircraft. Our chief investigator here told me this,"Deputy Transport Minister Abdul Aziz Kaprawi said.
This article was first published on Aug 15, 2015.
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