his kids. he d take them to the zoo, like, he was his little shadow. in fact, preparing the boys was a major issue before paul left for his 28-day assignment abroad. we cried when we left. i mean, this is a big change for the family. and we d prepared lincoln. a little pad to skype him and a map with, you know, where daddy was going to be. when weeks left home, he told his wife he was leaving a few things behind. i m going to leave my wedding ring and my watch, and should anything happen to me, i want the ring to go to the first son that s married and the watch to the second. and i said something to him, like, don t be stupid. just come back and i ll give it back to you and you can give it to them. hours earlier, first officer hamid and captain zaharie ahmad
the airport. they re there early and they re going to talk to the airline dispatcher. miles o brien is an aviation expert for cnn. they ll talk about the route. they ll talk about the winds aloft. they ll talk about turbulence. and with that all in mind, they will come to an agreement on how much fuel to load onboard an airplane. hamid and shah load enough fuel to get to beijing plus 45 minutes to spare. hours later, philip wood, paul weeks and 225 other passengers arrive for the flight. bags checked. boarding passes printed. among them, a group of chinese painters and calligraphers returning from an exhibit of their work. a family heading back from vacation with their toddler. two iranian men traveling on fake passports. passengers flying for business
and pleasure as well as the flight crew. in the cockpit, the captain and first officer make their final preparations. okay. oxygen. check. instruments. check. in a 777 simulator, commercial pilot mitchell casado shows cnn s martin savidge the preflight prep. it s going into this system here. the pilot loads the route, programming the aircraft to fly to its destination. and it s essentially step by step going to take this plane from kuala lumpur all the way to beijing. the plane is ready. before taking off, paul weeks sends a message home. the last line was, this counts as one day, so that means it s only 27 days until i see you all again. around 12:30 a.m., malaysia airlines 370 pushes back from the gate and gently eases toward the runway. the aircraft is cleared for takeoff. let s go. yeah. all right. so the brakes are off. and everything is set.
in the cockpit, the captain and first officer make their final preparations. okay. oxygen. check. instruments. check. in a 777 simulator, commercial pilot mitchell casado shows cnn the preflight prep. it s going into this system here. the pilot loads the route, programming the aircraft to fly to its destination. and it s essentially step-by-step going to take this plane from kuala lumpur all the way to beijing. the plane is ready. before taking off, paul weeks sends a message home. the last line was, this counts as one day, so that means it s only 27 days until i see you all again. around 12:30 a.m., malaysia airlines 370 pushes back from the gate and gently eases toward the runway. the aircraft is cleared for takeoff. let s go. yeah. all right. so the brakes are off. and everything is set.
including phillip wood, a 51-year-old ibm executive. thousands of miles away in beijing, the day begins as usual for his partner, sara bajac. i get up early, i drink coffey. we live next to an apple orchard and i do yoga every morning and eat my oatmeal and go to work. in the early morning hours, phil will take the red eye home to sara in beijing. the airport at kuala lumpur connects southeast asia to the continent. paul weeks needs to make it thousands of miles inland all the way to mongolia. he was doing this for the right reason. weeks is an engineer, husband and father of two young boys. he would take his kids to the zoo. in fact, preparing the boys