As news of the investigation of missing Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 veers from a possible crash to deliberate sabotage, families of the passengers are struggling to cope.
While news that the Boeing 777 Dreamliner may not have crashed has buoyed hopes that the 239 passengers on board might still be alive, the slow and tedious investigation is causing enormous strain on family members.
According to The Guardian, relatives of some of the 153 Chinese passengers on board are threatening to go on a hunger strike in an effort to force more information out of the Malaysian authorities.
“Now we have no news, and everyone is understandably worried,” said Wen Wanchen, whose son is among the 239 people on board. “The relatives say they will go to the [Malaysian] embassy to find the ambassador. The Malaysian ambassador should be presenting himself here. But he’s not. Relatives are very unsatisfied. So you hear them saying ‘hunger strike’.”
The plane, which has been missing since the early morning hours of March 8, was on its way from Kuala Lumpur airport in Malaysia to Beijing when it disappeared from radar about an hour into the flight. Since that time, Malaysian authorities have been criticized for their inept handling of the investigation and the contradictory information being provided to victims’ families.
“Since they haven’t given us the truth about those people’s lives, all of us are protesting,” an unnamed woman told the IBTimes. “All the relatives are facing mental breakdowns.”
As the New York Times describes, family members “have been stuck in a netherworld between anger and grief, clinging to the remotest hope that their relatives might still be alive as the authorities have offered conflicting and confounding possible narratives.”
When news broke this past weekend that the plane may have been intentionally diverted, relatives who have been gathering with airline employees in Beijing’s Lido Hotel let out a sigh of relief. Most consider this to be a much more positive development than finding wreckage somewhere out in the ocean.
“No news is good news,” one woman told the Times, but her patience was obviously thinning. “I don’t care where I sleep or what I eat. I just want them to find the plane!”
“Maybe the plane landed on a small island in the Indian Ocean and all the passengers are there. Maybe they are still alive. Maybe they will be back. It’s a 50/50 chance,” Steve Wang, whose mother was aboard the plane, told CNN.
“I was not only surprised, but hopeful. I think it is good news. They (possible hijackers) must have had a target where to bring the plane,” he said. “I don’t want to guess what happened. But if it was a kidnapping, the plane would not just fall into the ocean.”
But the strain is taking its toll on him. “I wake up 2 to 3 times a night. But I am trying to get more sleep and eat healthily. I tell myself to stay healthy for my mother so when she returns, I can take care of her.”
Meanwhile, dissatisfaction over the daily briefings from Malaysian authorities has reached the boiling point. A week ago, angry relatives starting pelting airline officials with water bottles during a press conference. This week they rose to their feet and started shouting.
“Take a look! How many of us (have) already lost patience with you and already lost trust in you,” one man shouted during Sunday’s briefing. “What we ask for is the truth! Don’t hide things from us!”
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away in Texas, the family of missing passenger Philip Wood are still hoping for a happy ending.
“I know he’s strong. He’s a strong guy and he’s a smart guy and he can survive things, you know, he can survive this. He can survive this, he is surviving this,” Wood’s brother, Tom Wood, told NBC DFW.
Wood’s other brother, James, said their family was relying on Christ to hold them together. “My brother, our family, we are Christians,” he said. “Christ above else is what’s keeping us together.”
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