Airline families told to ‘face reality’
Print Edition
THE first funerals for passengers on board the missing Malaysia Airlines jet will be held this weekend, relatives said yesterday, as a Malaysian official urged the families of those presumed dead to “face reality” and leave support centers.
Despite the most intensive air, sea and underwater search in commercial aviation history, no trace of flight MH370 has been found since it vanished while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8.
Almost eight weeks later, the airline has said it will close assistance centers it set up in Beijing and Kuala Lumpur for the relatives of the 239 passengers and crew on board the Boeing 777-200ER jet.
Many of the bereaved are Chinese.
Malaysia’s deputy foreign minister said yesterday it was time for relatives to be “realistic.”
“We have been waiting to come up with a statement and all of us, be it family members or the whole world, is looking for the answer,” Hamzah Zainudin told a news conference.
The airline has been looking after and supporting family members in Beijing for 55 days, the official said.
“And that’s the reason its about time for us to actually accept the reality that family members should go back and wait for the answer in their hometowns,” he said.
Families will be told of developments in the search and those who qualified will receive prompt compensation, officials said.
While some families have left Beijing for home, others are resisting.
“Do you think I will leave? What will life be like after returning home?” said Wang Bao’an, the father of a passenger. “Our life has been ruined by this. We are not able to face our relatives if we go back.”
Another relative, Zhang Yongli, said: “Malaysia Airlines promised they would not ask families to leave until they figured out what happened and had found the plane. But now they go back on their words.”
Meanwhile, the family and friends of Rod and Mary Burrows, two of the six Australians on the flight, will hold a memorial service in Brisbane tomorrow, according to a statement released by police on behalf of the family.
The family, the statement said, is seeking “privacy and request their solitude be respected during this difficult time.”
The announcement was issued a day after Malaysia released its most comprehensive account yet of what happened to MH370, detailing the route the plane probably took as it veered off course.
The report said four hours elapsed between the first sign the plane had failed to report in and the decision to mount a search.
Malaysia’s defense minister said an independent panel will look into the delay in ordering a search and rescue operation.
“We created the independent body with experts from around the world,” Hishammuddin Hussein, who doubles as acting transport minister, said.
“There were things Malaysia has done well and there were things we could have done better. If that’s something the panel says, we won’t be reluctant to take action.”
After weeks of scouring millions of square kilometers, Australian authorities have called off the air and surface search. Malaysia and Australia now plan to contract private firms to undertake a sonar search of 60,000 sq km of seabed that could take eight months or more and cost US$55.3 million.
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