Malaysian airplane: Kin of missing flyers hang on to hope

MUMBAI: Sanved Kolekar, whose parents and brother from Mumbai were on board the Malaysian Airlines flight that went missing on Saturday, is coming around the possibility that he may never see them again, say his friends.

Sanved's father Vinod Kolekar (63), mother Chetana (59) and brother Swanand (23) were among the 239 people on Flight MH370 that went missing from the South China Sea off Vietnam on Saturday. The Kolekars were headed to Beijing for a 10-day holiday with Sanved who moved there in December last year to pursue his post-doctoral research.

Sanved's wife, Tejashri, joined him last month. The couple, who had gone to receive the family at Beijing airport where they got the news, is staying at a hotel near the airport, like many relatives of other passengers of the same flight. The Malaysian Airlines on Sunday assigned a caretaker for each of the passenger's relatives in the hotel.

When TOI wrote to Sanved (29) asking him about the status at Beijing, he directed the correspondent to speak to Pradyot Tarde, his friend from Ruparel College, who is in Mumbai. "He is very disturbed as his entire family was on that flight. But no one seems to know anything about the whereabouts of the aircraft," said Tarde.

The Malaysian Airlines is briefing the families constantly, even though there is not much to update. "They are all fearing the worst. But the real outburst may come only when there is some official news on the aircraft. It is true for the families of all the passengers on that plane," said another close friend.

The residents of Sukh Sagar housing society at Yogi Nagar in Borivli (W), where the Kolekars live, have been glued to their television sets.