Flight 447

Does anyone else remember AirFrance Flight 447? It disappeared over the Atlantic on June 1, 2009, somewhere between Brazil and Africa. I'll never forget that night for one reason...

That was the same night my Grandfather passed away.

At the time, the plane was reported as missing. Speculation was rampant about what had happened. I obsessively tracked this story for days after the flight disappeared. I believed that by some miracle, that flight landed somewhere and was still out of radio contact.

I held on to the notion that somehow they'd find all the passengers and crew distressed and hungry a few days later. "They aren't looking in the right places," I'd tell anyone who would listen. With the passing of my Grandfather, I had convinced myself that these people were alive. They HAD to be!

I pulled up flight paths and weather patterns and desperately tried to figure out what happened to all those people. My optimism, however, was short lived. They discovered the wreckage the day before I was set to make the 24hr drive from LA to Houston for the funeral.

I followed the story closely for a full year. I remember when the French government stopped searching for the black box. I was devastated. How would anyone ever find closure if they stopped looking? A year or so after that, the French government announced that the private team they hired had finally found the fuselage of Flight 447.

My attachment is completely irrational, I get that, but three years later, this flight is still on my mind. Thanks to a Nightline special report, I now know the BEA (French equivalent of the FAA) is going to release its findings at the beginning of July.

Somehow the phrase, "a series of unfortunate events," provides not one single iota of comfort. Of course, this could be my way of choking down the emotional upheaval that the anniversary of my Grandfather's death brings. What I do hope the BEA findings will do is provide some semblance of closure to the families of those who lost their lives on Flight 447.