The disappearance of Malaysia Flight 370: One year later
Today marks one year since Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 vanished over the Indian Ocean. Also today, a new report reveals that the battery of the aircraft's underwater locator beacon had expired more than a year BEFORE the plane disappeared.
Seth Doane has filed this Sunday Journal:
All of that searching, all of those months, and still: nothing -- no trace of Flight 370.
All that talk of pings, satellite data and "possible debris" was just false hope.
"When Peter cries 'wolf,' over and over, the villagers stop responding," said Sarah Bajc. "And I've heard 'wolf' cried so frequently."
Bajc's partner, American Philip Wood, was one of the 239 people on board. One year on, she told Doane, "from a practical, daily perspective I've tried my best to keep life going. But from an emotional perspective, it has been very difficult to make any progress."
Why? "Because you're not just missing the person -- that's something that would always happen. If you lose somebody who you love you always miss them. But in this case, we've had all of this compounding trauma."
But the search goes on. The vast 23,000-square-mile search zone established in the Indian Ocean is still authorities' "best guess" as to where the flight ended.
- CBSNews.com complete coverage: Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
- Mystery complicates grief for families of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (CBS News, 03/07/15)
- Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 likely ran out of fuel on autopilot ("CBS This Morning," 10/10/14)
In heavy seas, a thousand miles west of Perth, Australia, search teams are using sonar to try to detect signs of the 777 on the sea bed.
They've searched roughly 44 percent of that "priority zone," which they hope to complete by May.
"Sometimes reality sinks in," said Jacqui Gonzales, "and says, 'Indian Ocean, big ocean, rough sea -- how?' But we'll still hang on to that hope, we will, until they find the plane."
Gonzales' husband, Patrick Gomes, was the in-flight supervisor on MH 370. She says everywhere she turns, she thinks of him, such as seeing his handwriting in a recipe book.
- A year with no answers for Flight 370 widow ("CBS This Morning," 03/06/15)
Malaysia's Department of Civil Aviation declared MH 370 an "accident" in January, 10 months into the search. It was supposed to help provide closure, but not for loved ones still waiting, still wondering.
"Right now you cannot tell me that he's gone forever until I see some evidence," said Gonzales. "I want something. I need something."
Sarah Bajc said, "I'm prepared to learn that there is evidence of the plane being crashed and everybody being dead. I'm prepared for that. I don't want that, but I'm prepared for that.
"But having to go through the rest of my life with this hanging over my heart and hanging over my head seems almost an impossible feat."