KQ507: A SURVIVOR HAS BEEN REPORTED

Mondays are usually gloomy but the sunrise of today brought darkness in my heart code named KQ507. It all began in the weekend on a slow Saturday afternoon. I had just arrived home from running errands. Incidentally, on that day, I met a number of my old friends from campus and there was a good feeling in the air. I must admit that when I overheard in the 4 o’clock news that a plane belonging to our national air carrier was missing, I never took it seriously. This has always been the habit with the 4p.m news on NTV and KTN. I even managed to catch up with my much-deprived sleep.

I awoke with a sense of alertness that kept fading away intermittently. Without further thought, I buried myself in a cell phone game until the 7p.m news hit the airwaves. He solemn face of KTN’s Swahili news anchor, Mwanaisha Chidzuga drew me back to a pending tragedy. My head was suddenly engulfed in a se of worry. There was a name that rang in the head and my cell quickly regained its primary use. She had recently been hired to work for Kenya Airways and though chances were that she had not yet taken her maiden flight, this was not the time to throw dice! I keyed in the number and the phone was answered before the third ring to my relief. The voice on the othe end was comfortingly familiar and the first question that I asked was, “Uko Kenya?”

“Ndio,” she replied in a rather shaky voice. She informed me that she was ‘freaking out’ at the thought of one of her friends being in the ill fated flight. I found myself telling her to pray. And she was not the only person who I knew to be working for KQ as an in flight attendant!

The worry of the victim’s relatives for the past few days cannot be put in words. At least I knew that my friend was not on duty in the plane. Their muscles must be spastic from the overwhelming wait to learn the fate of their loved ones from the time that they were officially reported missing on 5^th May, 2007. We all now know that the plane crashed in Cameroon after the debris was found in a swamp south of the town of Doula. So far, only bodies have been found. In my heart of hearts I strangely still hold the hope of hearing,

“A survivor has been reported…”