Reporters try to interview a new batch of Chinese relatives of passengers onboard missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 as they arrive at a hotel in Subang Jaya, Malaysia, on March 30, 2014.(Photo: Aaron Favila, AP)
More than two dozen Chinese family members of those onboard a missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner arrived in Kuala Lumpur Sunday seeking answers from Malaysia's government as to what happened to their loved ones.
Two-thirds of the 227 passengers on Flight 370 were Chinese, and their relatives have expressed deep frustration with Malaysian authorities since the plane vanished more than three weeks ago.
Meanwhile, more objects were pulled from the southern Indian Ocean and checked to see whether they were part of the plane, but no match has been made so far.
"My understanding from this morning is that there has been no discrete debris associated with the flight," Australian Navy Commodore Peter Leavy told reporters Sunday.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), which oversees the search, said a warship -- carrying an aircraft black box detector, an unmanned underwater vehicle and other acoustic detection equipment -- was set to depart Australia to join the search. The ship should arrive in the search area in three or four days.
Holding up banners that read "We want evidence, truth, dignity" in Chinese, and "Hand us the murderer. Tell us the truth. Give us our relatives back" in English, the group of family members staged a protest at a hotel near Kuala Lumpur just hours after flying in from Beijing.
The protesters Sunday repeatedly chanted slogans in Chinese: "We want evidence! We want the truth! We want our relatives!"
Jiang Hui, the relatives' designated representative, said they wanted a government apology for what they see as missteps in the initial handling of the disaster as well as Prime Minister Najib Razak's statement that indicated the plane had crashed with no survivors. Jiang said the relatives felt the conclusion was announced without sufficient evidence.
"We also request that Malaysia Airlines and the Malaysian government apologize for making the conclusion on March 24, without direct evidence or a sense of responsibility, that the plane was destroyed and people died," Jiang said.
"We hope that in these days, we can meet with technical teams involved in the search, and hold talks with Malaysia Airlines and the Malaysian government. We hope that these discussions will not be like they had been in Beijing, with wishy-washy answers," Jiang said.
Even popular actress Zhang Ziyi spoke out. "Malaysian government, you have hurt the entire world … You have misjudged the persistence in seeking truth by the world's people, including all the Chinese," she wrote on her microblog.
Jiang said the relatives wanted the government to release information and data related to the investigation in a "prompt and comprehensive way." They also wanted the airline to set up meetings with representatives from Boeing, Rolls Royce and Inmarsat, saying the lack of interaction was troubling.
"It has been 22 days now and none of their people have shown up," he said, referring to the companies. "Could it be that there really are problems with the quality of their products? What are they worried about?"
A man who gave only his surname, Xu, said in brief comments that the relatives want to meet officials "at the very highest levels."
In Beijing before they boarded the flight, one relative said they would demand to meet the prime minister and the defense minister, who is the chief spokesman for the government.
"We have questions that we would like to ask them in person," said Wang Chunjiang, whose younger brother, lawyer Wang Chunyong, was on Flight 370.
"We know what we can do is insignificant, but we will do whatever we can do for our beloved ones," said Wang, who was unable to make the trip because of a family issue. "We want to know what could have happened to them in the six hours the plane kept flying, and if they had to endure any mental and physical pains."
He said some relatives were hoping for a miracle. "It cannot be completely ruled out before we see the wreckage of the plane or the bodies of our loved ones."
Ong Ka Ting, the Malaysian prime minister's special envoy to China, went to greet the relatives at a hotel.
"I'm sure in Beijing they've already had a lot of discussions and we understand their feelings, and we know that definitely by coming over here there will be a lot more discussions and meetings," Ong said. " So we try our best to assist them."
AMSA said 10 planes were taking part in the search Sunday, leaving in staggered times from the western city of Perth. Eight ships were on the scene, including the Australian navy supply ship HMAS Success, which is to store any wreckage found.
The ships are trying to locate and identify the objects sighted by aircraft over the past two days.
Two ships combing the ocean off the west coast of Australia recovered a number of objects Saturday, but none was confirmed to be related to the missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner, AMSA said in a statement.
Aircraft in the area spotted multiple items in the water, including three objects pinpointed by a Chinese plane in the search area Saturday, AMSA said.
Xinhua News Agency said the Chinese military plane Ilyushin IL-76 sighted three objects that were white, red and orange in color. The missing Boeing 777's exterior was red, white, blue and gray.
A Royal Australia Air Force P3 Orion reported seeing objects in the water in a different part of the search area, the AMSA said.
"The objects sighted by aircraft cannot be verified or discounted as being from MH370 until they are relocated and recovered byships," the AMSA said. "It is not known how much flotsam, such as from fishing activities, is ordinarily there."
PROFILES: A look at some passengers on Flight 370
Malaysia Airlines' Beijing-bound Flight 370, with 239 people aboard, lost communication with civilian air controllers soon after it took off early March 8 from Kuala Lumpur International Airport. No emergency signals or distress messages were received before the plane vanished from radar.
A multinational search and recovery effort for the plane has carried on for three weeks.
After Prime Minister Razak said this week that the plane went down in a remote area of the southern Indian Ocean, far from any possible landing sites, Malaysia Airlines Chairman Tan Sri Md Nor Md Yusof put out a statement saying there was no hope for survivors.
"Based on this evidence, the prime minister's message was that we must accept the painful reality that the aircraft is now lost and that none of the passengers or crew on board survived," he said.
However, Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein pledged Saturday to continue the search for "possible survivors."
"Even hoping against hope, no matter how remote, of course we are praying and we are continuing our search for possible survivors," said Hussein, who was meeting with relatives of those aboard the missing flight.
Australian officials shifted their search for the missing Malaysian jetliner Friday, citing "a new credible lead'' about the path of the aircraft and where debris may be located. The new search area is about 1,150 miles west of Perth, Australia, and about 685 miles to the northeast of the previous search area.
There is still no solid evidence regarding what led to the plane's disappearance. Earlier this week, Hussein said there was an ongoing investigation.
"We can confirm that the police have interviewed more than a hundred people, including families of both the pilot and co-pilot," he said.
Contributing: Laura Petrecca in New York City; the Associated Press
Source: Top Stories - Google News - http://ift.tt/1hOl7Ly
0 comments:
Post a Comment