Distraught families pin hopes on hijacking
Print Edition
RELATIVES of Chinese passengers aboard Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 yesterday clung to hopes that the aircraft might have been hijacked and that their loved ones could somehow still be alive.
Emotions ran high at a Beijing hotel as families met airline officials and demanded answers from Malaysian military and search-and-rescue officials about the missing plane.
The Beijing-bound flight from Kuala Lumpur disappeared off the radar last Saturday with 239 people aboard — 154 of them Chinese — and multinational efforts have failed to find any remains.
“We want to know if there is any possibility that it has been hijacked, which is now what we all hope for most,” one woman said.
Her relatives had traveled to the Malaysian capital to be closer to the search operation but were not receiving satisfactory updates from the airline, she said.
Malaysia Airlines’ commercial director Hugh Dunleavy said they would attempt to facilitate relatives’ demands to meet Malaysian military officials.
But another woman responded furiously, saying: “You are always delaying, always delaying, we have waited so long for you to answer our questions.”
About 300 relatives were crammed inside a room — more commonly used for weddings — at the hotel where the airline was providing regular updates.
Some relatives interrupted their own questions halfway through, bursting out sobbing, while others stayed silent, occasionally staring at their mobile phones, frantically seeking news updates. Many simply sat with their heads bowed, linking arms with other relatives.
A flustered man whose 57-year-old mother was on the flight said all the relatives were “impatient” with the lack of information.
“I am sitting in front of the television and using my mobile phone to search for the latest news on the Internet,” he said.
Yet a man surnamed Gao found hope despite the enormous stretch of sea to be searched.
“We are racing against time, if the search area is increased soon, then our family members’ chances of survival will rise,” he said, clasping his hands together as he spoke passionately.
“We are asking more nations to get involved in the rescue of this unparalleled catastrophe.”
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