Fearful families hold on to hope
Relatives demand more information from the airline
Anguished relatives of the 239 people aboard the Malaysia Airlines jet that vanished after taking off from Kuala Lumpur were preparing Sunday to travel closer to the presumed crash site off the southern tip of Vietnam.
Distraught and frustrated, many relatives demanded that the airline release more information regarding Beijing-bound Flight MH370, which disappeared early Saturday with passengers and crew from 14 nations.
The airline warned relatives Sunday “to expect the worst,” but one Chinese family clung to a sign of faint hope that their loved one isn’t dead: the sound of a ringing cellphone.
“This morning, around 11:40, I called my older brother’s number twice, and I got the ringing tone,” said Bian Liangwei from Dingz- hou in north China’s Hebei Province. At 2 p.m., Bian rang again and heard it ringing once more.
“If I could get through, the police could locate the position, and there’s a chance he could still be alive,” said Bian, who passed the number to Chinese police and Malaysia Airlines.
Once the location is determined, Malaysia Airlines will set up a response control center in Kota Bharu, Malaysia’s northernmost major city, or in Vietnam, airline representative Ignatius Ong said Sunday in Beijing.
The airline will fly two family members for each missing passenger to Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian capital, or another destination if it is closer to the plane’s location. Efforts by Chinese authorities to fast-track passports appeared to succeed, as some relatives reported receiving passports Sunday, when Beijing ’s passport office is closed, within hours of applying.
The first flight for relatives who want to travel to Kuala Lumpur will be Monday, said Ong, while arrangements will continue for those who decide to wait in Beijing.
Many relatives were angry Sunday at the still-limited information after receiving very little news Saturday.
More than 80 relatives, after meeting with airline representatives, signed a petition demanding that the airline “announce the truth of this incident” by 5 p.m. or they would go to “make representations” at the Malaysian Embassy.
“I will definitely go to that place, when the plane is found,” said Zhang Hongjie, 44, who has no passport. He signed the petition Sunday.
The 153 Chinese nationals on board ranged from celebrated painters and calligraphers to business people, tourists, builders and a man who dreamed of becoming a dentist. Bian Liangjing, 26, bent steel for cement pillars on a Singapore building site for a $1,500 monthly wage to raise money for a dental clinic, said his brother, Bian Liangwei.