MH370: Selamat waits for his son with hope that never fades

The Everly Hotel which houses a significant number of the missing MH370 flight passengers’ families was unusually quiet as the search for the Malaysian Airlines (MAS) plane entered its twelfth day.

The only sight that was the faces of hotel workers and reporters, eagerly awaiting for any family members to walk out of their hotel rooms for a quick interview.

However it was only Selamat Omar, the father of Mohd Khairul Amri, a passenger on board the plane, who walked out his room.

As always, he gave a warm, welcoming smile to all the media members and was soon crowded by the many media members gathered in the hotel.

Selamat, who came out of his room to get some lunch, answered all the questions thrown in his direction with patience.

After almost an hour answering the local media’s questions, he focused his attention to the foreign media, speaking to them through a translator.

After almost half an hour, he asked, “Are we done yet? I need to go. I want to eat,” he said.

At that moment, Astro AWANI requested five minutes of his time for an exclusive interview.

Selamat, who stayed in the hotel with 10 other family members including Mohd Khairul’s wife and son willingly agreed to be interviewed and said that he is grateful for the media’s presence.

“The media entertains me. Without the media, I will worry and wonder,” he said.

Selamat said he gets the latest updates of the missing aircraft by reading the newspapers, watching television and speaking with members of the media.

“If I am bored, I will take a walk around the hotel,” he said adding that he is confident that the flight would be found and his son will return home.

The aircraft was scheduled to land at Beijing International Airport at 6.30am local Beijing time on March 8.

Subang Air Traffic Control reported that it lost contact at 2.40am (local Malaysia time) on the same day and until today, it has not been found.

The search for MH370 enters its twelfth day today but Selamat continues to wait for his son’s return with a hope that never fades.