MALAYSIA-AIRLINES/FAMILY REAX MH370 next-of-kin say debris discovery won't bring closure

Record ID: 144920

  • Title: MALAYSIA-AIRLINES/FAMILY REAX MH370 next-of-kin say debris discovery won't bring closure
  • Date: 5th August 2015
  • Summary: KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA (AUGUST 6, 2015) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** VARIOUS OF NEXT-OF-KIN OF MH370 PASSENGERS SITTING (SOUNDBITE) (English) WIFE OF IN-FLIGHT SUPERVISOR, JACQUITA GONZALES, SAYING: "It's not the end. Although they found something, you know, its not the end. They still need to find the whole plane and our spouses as well. We still wan
  • Embargoed: 20th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Malaysia
  • Country: Malaysia
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA8RKWRR0W8ONNIMNM6ADTBHVPX
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Families of Malaysians on board the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 said in the early hours of Thursday (August 6) that the discovery of the plane's debris on Reunion Island will not bring closure.
    Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak confirmed on Thursday that a Boeing 777 wing segment discovered in the Indian Ocean island of Reunion is from the missing plane, the first real breakthrough in the search for the plane that disappeared 17 months ago.
    The examination of the flaperon was carried out under the direction of a judge at an aeronautical test facility run by the French military at Balma, a suburb of the southwestern city of Toulouse, as Reunion is one of France's overseas territories.
    On the other side of the world in Kuala Lumpur, five family members of the missing flight's victims gathered at the home of Jacquita Gonzales, wife of MH370 crew member Patrick Gomes.
    Gonzales told reporters the search is far from over.
    "Its not the end. Although they found something, you know, its not the end. They still need to find the whole plane and our spouses as well. We still want them back," Gonzales said.
    When asked how she and her family were feeling about the discovery of the debris, she found it hard to describe.
    "Nervous, anxious, sad, angry... Everything rolled into one. I don't know whether there's a name for all of that, but that's how we feel, because we're still on a rollercoaster ride," she said.
    Lim Khim Fatt's wife was also a crew member on the flight that went missing on March 8 last year while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, with 239 people on board.
    He said the debris discovery was just one small piece of a big puzzle.
    "One piece of flaperon doesn't mean the plane has been fully discovered. There must be more debris to be found. Don't just show that one piece of flaperon; that's not enough at all," Lim said.
    He added that there were still many question marks surrounding the plane's disappearance.
    "A lot, in fact there's a lot of questions that haven't been answered yet, since day one, so those answers [sic questions] have to be answered," he added.
    The Boeing 777 was minutes into its scheduled flight when it disappeared from radars.
    Investigators believe that someone deliberately switched off the aircraft's transponder, diverted it thousands of miles off course, and deliberately crashed into the ocean off Australia.
    In January, Malaysia Airlines officially declared the disappearance an accident, clearing the way for the carrier to pay compensation to relatives while the search goes on.
    An $120 million Australian dollar ($88 million) hunt along a rugged 60,000 sq km patch of sea floor 1,600 km (1,000 miles) west of the Australian city of Perth has yielded nothing.
    The search has been extended to another 60,000 sq km (23,000 sq mile) and Malaysian and Australian authorities say this will cover 95 percent of MH370's flight path, at a cost of $50 million Australian dollars.
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