The skies were clear in Malaysia late in the evening of March 7 as Hou Aiqin passed through the security checks at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. She was due to take Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370, bound for Beijing, scheduled to take off at 1:41 am minutes on March 8.

As usual when she traveled overseas, the 45-year-old paused to select a gift for her husband. If everything went well, she would be at home in Beijing within six hours, but the Boeing 777-200, which was carrying 239 people, including 154 Chinese citizens, never arrived at its destination.

In December 2013, Hou decided to travel to Nepal as one of a group of 23 Chinese tourists. For the return journey, the group decided to split up because of a lack of discount tickets. The majority took China Southern Airlines Flight CZ3101 to Beijing via Guangzhou in Guangdong province, and a smaller group of nine flew to Kuala Lumpur to transfer to Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370.