The final farewell

ON Thursday Oct 13, the worst aviation crash in the country’s history was recorded in Marakum, Astrolobe Bay, Madang Province.
Twenty eight of the 32 people on board an Airlines PNG flight from Port Moresby, via Lae to Madang died.
As grieving relatives slowly come to terms with their loss, many will recall details of their actions that seemed peculiar on that fateful day
Affectionate and intimate words and actions never displayed before in marriages or children to parent relationships, strained or just never said and done, are now either fond or painful memories.
Each of the victims’ family members will have their own story to tell, this is one such story.
As far as the Air Investigation Commission and its team of overseas technical experts from the aircrafts own manufacturers know, including the forensic evidences collected; everything and everyone was burnt beyond recognition.
But strangely one particular bilas was sighted intact amid the mangled and burnt aircraft remains and rubble.
I was there at the scene and took photographs of a Simbu style kapul grass cap and two necklaces made from brown coloured seeds of a certain tree and one necklace made from dogs teeth. These items were among the debris of ash and twisted iron, as if placed there by someone after the crash.
The items were lying on top of parts of the burnt metal and soot. They bore no burn marks.
Astounded I asked policemen nearby if they had seen any local placing these items in the aircraft. They shook their heads bewildered.
Local rescuer, Titus Philemon, said in such an explosion of jet A1 fumes burning three metres high within a radius of two metres, nothing would have come out green or clean. Anything made of bush ropes and fur could not have survived such an inferno.
Many questions arose: How did these items get to where they were without any damage? Where were these items when the plane was burning? Were they thrown out into nearby bushes by the impact? If so are other items of cargo saved that were thrown out of the plane upon impact? Were they placed there by someone and who? What does this mean to a believer?
These questions could not be answered. The only response by most was, “Em mas samting blong ples ya. Em ol samting ya soim sign”. (Must be the work of someone casting spells or practising sorcery, because the  bilas seen are tangible signs of proof)
As a Papua New Guinean that would be rendered a satisfactory answer considering all other plausible reasons.
I managed to locate a person who at one time had worn these items. Imelda Bal, is a second year medical student at the UPNG Medical Faculty campus in three mile, Port Moresby. Imelda is the daughter of the late Jenny Bal, wife of late John Bal. Jenny, a mother of six was a high school principal.
Mum Jenny was on her way to attend her sister Clara’s thanksgiving mass at Divine Word University.  Clara is the second born in the family and had just completed her final year in PNG Studies.
Imelda, in a phone interview, when given the description of the kapul cap and the necklaces immediately said, “These belong to my mother”.
“I was dressed up in my mother’s traditional finery during the Independence celebrations in school.
That was the same bilas
she was taking to Divine
Word University to dress
my sister in,”
Imelda recalls: “The night before mum was supposed to fly she got up at 1am in the morning and rang my cousin brother, Kevin to pick her up.
In the morning as we were going to purchase the ticket, I was restless. My intuition told me that something like a plane crash was bound to occur. This very bad feeling kept nagging at me that I begged her to reconsider booking to fly Air Niugini.
I told her, ‘Husait save raun long Airlines na you laik kalap igo’. (We’ve never jumped on an airlines PNG plane before so why now?) ‘
I was adamant that she book an Air Niugini flight. When we went to the Air Niugini office, we were told that all flights into Madang were fully booked.
She tried on Tuesday that week and Wednesday but got the same response. There was only one available seat on the Airlines PNG flight on Thursday.
I was supposed to go with her but when we found out that there was only one seat available I insisted that I go. She calmly said looking at me with love and concern in her eyes, ‘No Imelda, I will go. You just have to be strong.’
She kept repeating to me, ‘Imelda, you have to be strong.’
I was wondering why she kept saying that, but that week, despite being a strong willed religious woman, she was sowing doubts and telling me that a certain feeling of uneasiness was making her restless, that she wasn’t sure how to put it.
Despite the fact that I argued with her to stop talking like that and to quit that seat on the plane, she left, turning to smile and wave her last goodbye.
While at the airport terminal she kept pinching my cheeks, playing with my hair, hugging me and telling me that I had to look after my little ones. I was embarrassed with people looking and told her to stop doing that to me but she kept on in her playful mood.
I reminded her to call me when she arrived in Lae. She did. That was assurance enough.
Restlessly walking through school, counting the minutes before she would make it to Madang and give me another call as promised, I decided the best thing was to sleep out the rest of the waiting time.
When I awoke it was 5:15pm. I knew she was to land at 5:10pm. I called her twice and received no response.
I decided to call Kevin and ask if he heard any news. Nothing. I was frantic and by 6pm I saw it all over the news. I collapsed and tried to fight the feeling of loss and regret, the lump in my throat just couldn’t go down as I wailed in the dormitory.
Mum took the bilas down to dress Clara. Clara would have been proud to have mum there. I didn’t know how to break the news to my twin siblings and an adopted baby sister.
My brother after me at Madang Teachers College couldn’t accept the fact when told. He kept asking Clara if mum had arrived and was going to visit him.
If you ask me, yes those are my mother’s bilas, the ones I wore on Independence Day at school and the same ones she was to dress Clara in for her graduation from Divine Word”, she ended.
Imelda’s father passed away three months ago and mum Jenny was busy sorting out dads final entitlements. Their attempts to get their dads entitlements will be made more difficult because all original documents of his final entitlements were burnt along with their mother in the plane crash.
“Instead of relatives sympathising, they keep asking about Dads final entitlements”, she said.
I don’t know where my siblings and I will stay or how we will manage but if those relatives want the money, they can get it. I only know that both our parents are in spirit with us and will see that we are taken care of”, she said in a quivering voice.
The bilas was bagged by police detectives and brought down to Madang for safekeeping but according to a certain policewoman, who returned to the crash site the next day, the  bilas items were mysteriously back in the same spot.
Jomba Police Station Commander,Senior Inspector Steven Kaipa confirmed all this.
“Yes, it was Saturday when I saw these bilas items. They were lying close to the damaged belly of the plane on the ground. It looked like a little bit of dust or soot had covered the items, which was a necklace made of some animal teeth and a bilum cap. I was wondering how these items did not get burnt and then thought that someone may have placed these things there after the crash. When I bent to collect them I was immediately told by another detective that if I did something bad might befall the group on our boat ride back.
So feeling a bit uneasy about this muramura  thing I left it there for someone else to collect,” he said.
The items are now in Madang. The detective in charge of the case, Sgt Tangi is custodian of the bilas until Clara who is currently in the village comes forth to claim them.