Emotional MH370 families demand answers, five years on

Emotional relatives of those aboard Flight MH370 Friday demanded answers to one of the world's greatest aviation mysteries and called for the hunt to resume, five years on from the plane's disappearance.

The Malaysia Airlines jet vanished on March 8, 2014 carrying 239 people -- mostly from China -- en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

No sign of it was found in a 120,000-square kilometre (46,000-square mile) Indian Ocean search zone and the Australian-led hunt, the largest in aviation history, was suspended in January 2017.

A US exploration firm launched a private hunt last year but it ended after several months of scouring the seabed without success.

Around 50 relatives of Chinese passengers travelled to Beijing from around the country to mark the anniversary and gathered outside the foreign ministry, with some weeping as police officers looked on.

Hu Qiufang told AFP that family members had spent the past year pleading to see the foreign minister but they were only granted a meeting with a low-level official Friday, who told them there were no updates.

"The Chinese government doesn't listen to us, we feel very helpless," said the 78-year-old, whose son was on the flight.

"As our country, China should be supporting the families."

Jiang Hui, whose mother was on the flight, said he was still haunted by the tragedy: "It's like a living nightmare, the scene replaying in my head."

Malaysian family members meanwhile called for the search to be restarted.

They were given a glimmer of hope last weekend during a memorial in Kuala Lumpur when the Malaysian transport minister said he was open to hearing proposals to resume the hunt.

"We will continue to do whatever we can to make sure the search goes on," Grace Nathan, whose mother Anne Daisy was on the flight, told AFP.

"As long as there's the possibility of a search, we remain hopeful that the plane can be found."

Jacquita Gonzales, whose husband Patrick Gomes was an MH370 flight steward, said that "every time March comes it's like it was only yesterday that our loved ones went missing -- it's very hard."

In a long-awaited final report into the tragedy released in July last year, the official investigation team pointed to failings by air traffic control and said the course of the plane was changed manually.

But they failed to come up with any firm conclusions, leaving relatives angry and disappointed.

ewx-pl-sr/rox

Malaysia Airlines

Related Links
Aerospace News at SpaceMart.com

Tweet

Thanks for being there;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.

SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5+ Billed Monthly

paypal only

SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once

credit card or paypal

Lockheed to provide modification kits, tooling for F-35 air systems
Washington (UPI) Mar 6, 2019
Lockheed Martin Corp. will provide kits and tooling for modifications to the F-35 Lightning II fighter plane air system under a $32.7 million, the Defense Department announed. The contract, announced Tuesday, calls for procurement of modification kits and special tooling for retrofitting air systems already delivered to the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and non-Defense Department and Foreign Military Sales customers. Work will be performed at Lockheed Martin's Fort Worth, Texas, facility, wit ... read more