Interview with father who lost a son on MH17

Malaysia Airlines steward Sanjid Singh Sandhu was not supposed to be on Flight MH17 that crashed in eastern Ukraine.

But the 41-year-old swapped flights with a colleague to return home a day earlier to visit his parents.

AP Television spoke to Jijar Singh Sandhu, Sanjid’s father, about the loss of his son.

“Nothing in this world can bring me back to be the normal person again. Now I realized losing a child, how hurting it is,” said a grief-stricken Jijar Singh.

The tragedy came just 131 days after his daughter-in-law, who is also a flight stewardess, escaped death after swapping out of Flight 370 that vanished while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Jijar said Sanjid called back on Wednesday just before he left Kuala Lumpur.

He spoke to his mother and told her that he would be back on Friday, when he would lunch with his parents.

Jijar said he and his wife were struggling to come to terms with the death of their only son.

“I always tell him, ‘son, I love you one hell of a lot. You are my only son’. He will say, ‘Dad, I’m 41, I’m a grown up man, I have my own son’.”

Following MH 370’s disappearance, Jijar said the family was worried for Sanjid and his wife, but his son, who has been flying for 17 years, was not deterred.

“He always tells (me) ‘Dad, leave it up to fate. If it happens, you will have to accept it.’ And so (it’s) like this,” Jijar said.

His only daughter, who lives in Munich with her husband, returned on Sunday to Penang to support the family.

 Originally posted at 11:24 am | Monday,  July 21, 2014