[Silkair MI185 - 19 Dec 1997] "I understand that my father will never return”

24 years ago today (Dec 19) at 3.37pm local Jakarta time, SilkAir MI185 took flight from the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta with Singapore as its intended destination. It was meant to be an 80-minutes flight.

All the 104 persons (97 passengers and 7 crew members) from 14 different countries onboard, the oldest being 77 and the youngest only 2, did not arrive in Singapore. Slightly more than 40 minutes after leaving Jakarta at 4.13pm local time, the plane nosedived into the Musi River near the city of Palembang in South Sumatra, Indonesia.

The plane shattered into pieces and all 104 persons onboard, including 46 Singaporeans, perished.

After more than a month of recovery efforts in the Musi River, no intact remains were found.

This was the worst aviation disaster in Singapore’s history.

We all know the feeling of waiting, in particular, the excitement and an anticipatory joy of waiting for their loved ones at an arrival lounge.

A hug, a kiss and being able to feel each other speaks volumes of a longingly wait. 

Today, 24 years on, families are still waiting for their loved ones to return.

Though we may know what it is like to wait, but for the 104 families whose loved ones were onboard MI185, they wait and continues to wait. To them, there has been no closure.

As the families of those onboard witnessed debris from the plane being fished out from the river, their hopes were extinguished in an instance.

They returned home without their loved ones – no intact body was ever found.

They were left to pick up the pieces, literally and metaphorically.

As Ms Tan Tam Mei, the daughter of one of the passengers wrote in The New Paper in 2014, “I understand that my father will never return”.

"The truth is that time cannot fully heal such wounds. The grief subsides, but the pain and loss linger”, Ms Tan continues.

The longing was mutual. It was the middle of December. Most if not all of the passengers and crew onboard were enroute to family reunions and celebrating the festive season with their loved ones.

Many have words left unsaid. Some may have even wanted to give their loved ones a surprise. Their hopes and expectations of the good times ahead were met with a horrifying uncontrollable dive to the abyss.

We can only pray that all onboard were at peace in their last moments prior to their physical disintegration.

Today, they are a distant memory, and their names are etched on memorial sites at cemeteries in Palembang and Singapore.

Their coffins were symbolic, they were being buried empty.

At the Musi river, where the 104 onboard rests today, time stood still for 104 families.

On 19 December 1997, at 4.13pm Jakarta time, time stood still and lives, both the living and the dead, were irrevocably altered for the worst.

Note:

Death Kopitiam remembers the 104 victims of Silkair MI185, 19 December 1997, who perished in Singapore’s worst aviation disaster on this day twenty-four years ago. May they be at peace, and may their loved ones continue to hold them in loving memories, and find some closure when there isn’t one to begin with.