NZ family's anguish over missing plane

Paul and Danica Weeks on their wedding day in November 2007. The couple have two small children.
Paul and Danica Weeks on their wedding day in November 2007. The couple have two small children.
Little Lincoln Weeks has a map on his wall showing where his father, Kiwi Paul Weeks, was going to live and work in Mongolia before his plane went missing over the South China Sea.

Six days after it disappeared, the fate of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 and the 239 people on board is still unknown.

Amid the rollercoaster of disaster speculation and dead-end debris hunts, the biggest hurdle so far for Danica Weeks had been telling her son his Daddy may not come home.

"I said, 'On the way to Mongolia, Daddy got lost.' Then I broke down," she told the Herald. "He put his hand on my arm and said, 'Don't worry, Mummy, I'll find Daddy'."

The 38-year-old Mr Weeks left Danica and sons Lincoln, 3, and Jack, 11 months, in their adopted home of Perth to start work in Mongolia as a mechanical engineer.

Mrs Weeks said it was her husband's dream job.

He was off on his first stint away and would have been gone for 28 days.

But as the days stretched on with no news on the plane's whereabouts, she knew she had to tell the 3-year-old.

"I said, 'People are out there trying to find Daddy.' I said, 'Do you know where your heart is?' He said 'yes' and pointed to his chest. I said, 'You just have to keep Daddy in your heart ... Everyone is keeping Daddy in their hearts'."

Mr Weeks had bought a map for Lincoln's wall so he knew where his father was - and a Tablet so they could Skype. "He was Paul's little shadow", she said.

"He was my biggest hurdle. I may face a bigger hurdle yet, but that was the toughest [so far]."

She had lots of emotional support and help with the children. Her sister had arrived from Scotland and a friend from Sydney had also flown to Perth.

But the lack of credible information from Malaysia Airlines about the flight was increasingly frustrating.

"It seems crazy to me that you can't find a plane. The plane just disappeared. You'd think they would have some idea where it was going."

She had had intermittent contact with the airline, mostly through a saleswoman based in Perth - who had admitted to Mrs Weeks she would probably hear news through the media before hearing it from the airline.

It was hard not to expect the worst, she said, which had been in her mind since first hearing of the flight's disappearance.

"I guess we'll just wait for news. I wake up every day and it's the same thing. Sadly, you know as it goes longer, the news isn't going to be good.

"You're expecting the inevitable ... but then what if it isn't? So you just hold on."

 

 

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