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Month-long MH370 saga has mixed effect on travellers

"I never worried like this before what happened with the missing
Malaysia Airlines plane," Yulveri, who like many Indonesians uses only a
single name, said at Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.

At airports across Asia and around the
world, Flight 370 and its 239 passengers and crew, now lost for more
than a month, are topics of avid speculation and sometimes anxiety.
Passengers typically remain confident about the safety of air travel,
but some are distressed by the disappearance, which — given the number
of people involved — is unprecedented in aviation industry.

"The mystery over the missing plane had
created many confusing, even terrifying, theories every day," Yulveri
said.

"And the black-box must be found whenever and however, or it will
become a black hole in the aviation world."

Before she and her husband, an air force
officer, left for a week-long tour of Japan's Hokkaido island, she
talked to her 15-year-old daughter and asked her to take care of her
younger siblings.

"What are you talking about, Mom?" Yulveri quoted her daughter as saying. "You will come home. We all will be fine."

Here's what air travellers across Asia
said Wednesday, Thursday and Friday when they were asked, "One month
later, how does the Flight 370 mystery affect your attitude toward
flying?"

___

Yue Caifei, 65, a retired engineer from
Tianjin, China, waiting at Beijing Capital Airport to set off on a
15-day group tour of the U.S.:

"I'm not afraid at all. Flying is
generally really safe and accidents are really, really rare. What's the
point of being afraid? We're living a good life, our children are grown
and it's time for us to enjoy life. I'm going off to Hawaii and San
Francisco and when I get back let's go get a drink."

___

Jin Bijian, 34, a
website-television multimedia producer headed from Beijing to Hong Kong
to accompany a friend on a shopping trip:

"I'm really scared. I've always been a
nervous flier and this only makes things worse. We have to find out what
happened to the plane. We need to know what the risks are. Otherwise,
it feels like anything can go wrong and we just don't know."

___

Greg Corbishley, 49, who was heading home
to London from Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport after a
business trip to Thailand and Cambodia:

"Flying is still probably the safest
means of transport. And until we find the plane and find out what
happened, I think that stays the case."

___

Sinead Boylan, 26, of Liverpool, England, flying from Bangkok to Australia after backpacking across Asia:

"It's scarier than it was. I'm a little more cautious, a little more worried, I'd say."

___

Kim Hyun-shik, 56, a retired banker
travelling out of Seoul's Incheon International Airport for a 10-day
trip to Turkey with his wife:

"It makes me a little nervous. … It's
amazing to think that people have disappeared, just like that. Science
has developed so much, yet we can't do a basic search of a jet. As time
goes by, it will be like trying to find a needle in a river."

___

Skander Aissa, who works in the finance
industry in Connecticut, at the airport train in Hong Kong. He and his
wife were travelling to Taiwan after visiting a friend:

"No fear. You take a risk when you take
the plane all the time, anyway. It doesn't matter if you're flying now
or tomorrow. It is what it is."

___

Jacques Niclair, a 65-year-old Mauritius
businessman who arrived at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on a
Malaysia Airlines flight from Colombo, Sri Lanka:

"I can tell you that I slept very well on
board. It didn't affect me. I was not worried. … As long as we don't
know what happened to the plane, we should be supportive of Malaysia
Airlines. It is going through a tough time."

___

Wajihah Abdul Fatah, 19, a Malaysian
student headed home on a Malaysia Airlines flight from Kuala Lumpur to
her hometown in Sarawak state on Borneo island:

"I am so very afraid that something will
happen to my plane like MH370, but I just have to believe in Allah and
pray that I will be safe. I have to fly. I have no choice because I miss
my family."

___

Nurul Shuhada Rosnan, 19, was at the Kuala Lumpur airport to see off Wajihah, her friend:

"I have decided not to take any flight for the next two years. How can a plane just disappear like that?"

___

Joyce Cole, who lives near Perth, Australia, where she was catching a flight to Bali, Indonesia, for a holiday:

"I'm still fine with flying. But when it
first happened, you think, 'Oh my goodness.' But you do it that
regularly it doesn't bother you. And I think that whoever took that
plane, obviously it must have been something to do with terrorism, and
you just hope there are no terrorists on our plane."

___

Jane Barnes, Cole's daughter, who also was travelling to Bali:

"I don't feel any differently. I fly
quite often, probably about every 8 to 10 weeks. But even when I do fly
that often, I still have quite a few butterflies on the plane. Any
little bumps, I'm just, 'Hang on,' and I'm holding my breath. But you
just bear it. … I think you can't let these things interfere with your
life. If you have plans, and you have holidays to go to, and, what do
they say about life, you just keep going with it."

___

Duang-ramon Paaptanti, 37, a Thai woman
who studies at a Japanese university and was leaving Tokyo's Haneda
Airport on a Cathay Pacific flight to Hong Kong:

"That was a one-off thing and things like
that don't happen very often, but it makes me want to communicate more
with my family. You become more cautious. You make sure that you say
your goodbyes properly."