MH370 missing flight: Malaysian Airlines closes latest search, Pune man still waits for answers

‘I was getting ready to pick her up’

At the time of the incident, Prahlad was based in North Korea, working with the international NGO Concern Worldwide. He was preparing to receive Kranti at the airport when news broke on television that a flight had disappeared; the flight number confirmed it was the same aeroplane.

Within hours, he travelled by road to China with support from North Korean and Chinese authorities and later flew to Kuala Lumpur. After a week of fruitless waiting between Beijing and Kuala Lumpur, he returned to India to be with his two sons.

For the next few years, he tracked every development in the search. He stayed in touch with the families of other passengers on the flight and attended annual commemorative events in Malaysia. “But there was never any substantial update,” he told The Indian Express.

Multiple searches, no answers

The search for MH370 has been one of the longest and most expensive in aviation history. In 2014, Malaysia, Australia, and China launched a joint search covering 120,000 square kilometres of the southern Indian Ocean. It was called off in January 2017 without locating the aircraft. A second attempt by US exploration firm Ocean Infinity in 2018 also failed.

The most recent effort came in 2025, when Malaysia signed a fresh agreement with Ocean Infinity to search a new 15,000-sq-km area of the southern Indian Ocean on a “no find, no fee” basis. The operation ran in two phases—March 2025, and December 2025 to January 2026—covering approximately 7,571 sq km of the seabed over 28 operational days. In an official statement on March 8, Malaysia’s Ministry of Transport confirmed that “the search had not yielded any findings confirming the location of the wreckage”.

For Prahlad, the news was not surprising, but it stung nonetheless. “Twelve years have passed. Multiple search operations have been carried out. But no concrete evidence has been received. We have technologies that have discovered things on the moon and other planets, lakhs of kilometres away, and yet we cannot find an aeroplane on Earth. That is both disappointing and, at times, hard to believe,” he said.

‘A man-made event’

Prahlad does not believe the disappearance was a technical failure. “The way the aircraft made a U-turn and then headed towards the Indian Ocean before disappearing, I strongly suspect this was a man-made event. Perhaps a suicide attempt by the pilots, or something done deliberately under someone’s influence as part of a pre-planned act,” he said.

He also feels that technology alone will not resolve the mystery. “Political willpower is equally necessary. This remains the greatest mystery in aviation history.”

Moving on, but never forgetting

Prahlad has since returned to Pune and now works with social foundations focused on women’s empowerment and rural development. He left Concern Worldwide about a year and a half ago. He is also planning to launch a foundation that recognises women excelling in transparent, citizen-centric, and efficient public governance. “This work should go beyond our lifetime,” he says.

His elder son, Rahul, completed his MBA in Canada and is working with an MNC. His younger son is doing his articleship while preparing for the chartered accountancy examinations.

Back at their home near Chandni Chowk in Pune, not a single arrangement that Kranti had made has been altered. “Not a single day passes that she is not remembered,” says Prahlad. The family is also part of ongoing efforts to build a memorial in Malaysia for all those who were on the ill-fated flight.

Every year on March 8, while the world marks International Women’s Day, Prahlad observes it differently: felicitating women, distributing sarees, and hosting a village feast in Kranti’s memory at their native Pimpalgaon village in Ahilyanagar district.