MH370 families enraged by airline’s report
Malaysian investigators can’t tell what caused plane’s disappearance
Chinese relatives of passengers on board the missing flight MH370 lodged a protest against the long-awaited report into the disappearance of the flight, saying that it did not provide anything new, and they demand the search be resumed.
Malaysia Airlines representatives and the head of the investigation team of Malaysia Airlines came to Beijing to meet with the families on Friday. This was the first time that members of the investigation team from Malaysia have come to China, reported China National Radio.
The investigators’ report enraged the Chinese relatives who slammed it for failing to identify the cause of the disappearance of the flight.
The meeting lasted from 9:30 am to 6 pm on Friday. The investigators explained the core content of the report to the Chinese family members and took their questions.
There were more than 100 family members at the scene, most of whom came from outside Beijing and some took overnight trains in order to attend the meeting.
The 800-plus page English report, which reviewed the aircraft’s airworthiness, cargo assignment and wreckage information, said that the probe team could not determine why the plane went off course and disappeared.
The Malaysian team provided only a 12-page summary in Chinese of the key aspects of the report.
The family members urged Malaysian officials to provide a complete Chinese version of the report as soon as possible, to make the families feel “valued and respected.” They have even offered to support the translation at their own expense.
Some family members pointed to unresolved issues such as some recovered debris that has not yet been officially identified. Kok Soo Chon, the head of the investigation team, acknowledged that the latest report did not contain all of the reports they had received because some were “unverifiable” or “believed to be untruthful.”
The emotional families carried signs asking Malaysia officials not to abandon the investigation and search. An angry chant was raised by the distressed families: “This report is not enough at all! It’s fooling everyone here. We need to keep investigating, keep searching!”
They called on the Malaysian government to honor its promise to continue searching for the missing people, and suggested setting up a special reward system for valuable clues.
Some family members have rejected the dissolution of the investigation team, saying it is unprecedented and not in conformity with international conventions to dismiss the investigation team without issuing a final report.
They hope the work of the investigation team will continue until all the suspicious points are cleared.
Kok Soo Chon responded that the team would be dissolved and the investigation would be suspended until new and more reliable evidence will have emerged.
The families asked if testimony in the report had been fabricated, the investigators said they cannot completely exclude the possibilities they had received false evidence but they had gathered all available information and analyzed all the evidence.
Jiang Hui, a representative of the families, told the Global Times that over the past four years, the biggest problem facing the family members is that they have not been able to maintain effective communication with the Malaysian government. Jiang’s mother was on the MH370.
“After they [Malaysian government representatives] left Beijing in 2014, they returned only one more time. We feel there has been a lack of good information and open communication channels,” said Jiang.
The family members asked for counseling services to be resumed and the Malaysian side said it would try to restore the services within three weeks.
“Psychiatrists are very, very important to families,” Jiang emphasized, adding that many of the families of the missing passengers are now dependent on psychological treatment and medication. “It’s really serious,” said Jiang.
Flight MH370, which was carrying 239 passengers, most of whom were Chinese, disappeared on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014. It triggered the largest hunt in aviation history.
But no sign of the jet was found in a 120,000-square-kilometer Indian Ocean search zone and the Australianled hunt was suspended in January 2017.