CHINA: Frustration grows among family members of Chinese passengers aboard a Malaysia Airlines flight that has remained missing for over three days, and China sends more ships to search for the plane

Record ID: 402475

  • Title: CHINA: Frustration grows among family members of Chinese passengers aboard a Malaysia Airlines flight that has remained missing for over three days, and China sends more ships to search for the plane
  • Date: 11th March 2014
  • Summary: BEIJING, CHINA (MARCH 11, 2014) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF HOTEL SIGN READING 'LIDO PLACE' CAR DRIVING PAST GUARD FAMILY MEMBERS OF PASSENGERS ABOARD MISSING MALAYSIA AIRLINES FLIGHT WALKING OUT OF ROOM CROWD OF MEDIA GATHERED (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) FAMILY MEMBER OF MISSING PASSENGER MRS. YANG SAYING: "Our demands for going to Malaysia are that we can choose our own flight,
  • Embargoed: 26th March 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China
  • Country: China
  • Topics: Accidents
  • Reuters ID: LVADBV1VCHBLDZMDG3SKELQEV24Q
  • Story Text: Families members of Chinese passengers aboard a Malaysia Airlines flight that disappeared over the sea expressed frustration with the airline on Tuesday (March 11) as they waited for more information about the aircraft.
    Families met with representatives of the airline on Tuesday afternoon, but failed to come to an agreement on compensation and conditions for potential travel to Malaysia.
    Mrs. Yang said that families had declined a 31,000 yuan ($5,053) sum offered by the airline to compensate them during their stays in the capital while they wait for news.
    While the meeting was still in progress, she told reporters that families were also demanding certain conditions if they were to travel to malaysia.

    "Our demands for going to Malaysia are that we can choose our own flight, choose our own seats and also our hotel. They're just considering this. But it's not a question of them replying to us, they must meet our demands," she said.
    Relatives' tempers have flared after more than three days of waiting in a northwestern Beijing hotel for news of the missing plane.
    Paul Yin, a US-trained Chinese psychologist voluntarily offering counselling and support to families, said that for many, not knowing the fate of their loved ones was the hardest thing.

    "Right now even the bad news may be easier to take for many people than this continuous uncertainty. Because this continuous uncertainty, there's no appropriate reaction for it. You're just going all over the place, and that's very difficult," he said.
    The massive search has drawn in navies, military aircraft, coastguard and civilian vessels from 10 nations, but failed to turn up any trace of the Boeing 777-200ER that vanished about an hour into a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing early on Saturday (March 8).
    The search was widened on Tuesday to a larger swathe of the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea, around where the plane lost radio contact and vanished from radar screens.
    About two-thirds of the 227 passengers and 12 crew now presumed to have died aboard the plane were Chinese. Other nationalities included 38 Malaysians, seven Indonesians, six Australians, five Indians, four French and three Americans.
    The Chinese Foreign Ministry said China will have eight ships deployed in the sea area where Flight MH370 may have crashed to conduct search by Wednesday (March 12).

    "Four Chinese vessels have already arrived in the sea area where the plane may have lost contact to conduct search and rescue as of today, two more ships will arrive in the waters later today. Another two Chinese vessels will join the search and rescue efforts tomorrow (March 12)," the ministry's spokesman Qin Gang told a regular news conference in Beijing on Tuesday.
    China has deployed 10 satellites using high-resolution earth imaging capabilities, visible light imaging and other technologies to "support and assist in the search and rescue operations", the People's Liberation Army Daily said on Tuesday.
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