The crash of the passenger jet with more than 244 people on board became, in an instant, a wound shared by strangers across continents.
In the glare of emergency lights, responders moved through wreckage that hours earlier had been a quiet cabin of sleeping children, whispered conversations, and unspoken plans.
Now, investigators sift through fragments of metal and data, trying to reconstruct the final minutes and understand why an ordinary flight turned into a nightmare.
In waiting rooms and living rooms, families cling to phones, refreshing news feeds, bargaining with silence. Some hold onto improbable hope; others brace for the call that will end it.
Around them, a shaken world confronts the fragility of routine: a boarding pass, a seatbelt click, a casual goodbye at the gate.
Answers will come slowly, in reports and hearings, but the absence left behind will never feel fully explained.
