Relatives decline offer of money
Print Edition
RELATIVES of Chinese passengers on board the missing Malaysia Airlines flight declined to accept money from the airline yesterday as distrust and frustration at the carrier mounted.
The airline said it had offered “financial assistance” of 31,000 yuan (US$5,000) to the family of each missing traveler.
But a relative of one of the passengers, from east China’s Shandong Province, said: “We’re not really interested in the money.
“It is all about the people - the people on the plane. We just want them back,” she said at the Beijing hotel where relatives and friends of many of the 154 Chinese passengers were waiting for news.
Ignatius Ong, leader of the airline’s response team in China, confirmed that the offer had not been taken up.
But he denied the relatives had rejected it, saying they had asked the airline to “review” the terms of the acceptance form.
“There are certain items where there will be a difference of opinion,” he added. “These are very difficult times and we also appreciate that at this time a lot of people are frustrated.”
Some relatives appeared to have begun to accept that their loved ones may not have survived.
“We are mentally prepared for the worst,” said one woman surnamed Cao. Her husband’s brother had been on board as part of a group accompanying Chinese artists to an exhibition in Malaysia.
Malaysia Airlines has offered to fly two relatives of each missing person to Kuala Lumpur to be closer to the search. Nine Chinese and three Indians arrived in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
Inside a hotel ballroom, family members watch a television screening continuous news. “The wait has been absolute torture,” said a man in his 20s surnamed Liu, from the northern city of Tianjin. His older brother was on the flight.
Emotions ran high as families broke for lunch, with one irate relative venting fury at airline staff for asking him to see a meal ticket.
“Do you think that Malaysian food is delicious or what?” he shouted, waving his arms around in a rage. “This is the attitude of Malaysia Airlines toward the relatives. Your responsibility is to comfort people. Not to stop them and ask them for their ticket.”
Given the lack of information, any rumor, however wild or implausible, is being grasped at.
The accounts of some passengers on messaging tool QQ indicated they had been online, although the operator said failure to shut the software down properly can give that impression.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
