Frustration and suspicion mounts amid fruitless search for Malaysian jet
- 10 years ago
Two weeks on – the agonising wait for news continues with no sighting of the missing Malaysia Airline jet.
The international team hunting Flight MH370 in the remote southern Indian Ocean yielded no results on Friday, and
Australia’s deputy prime minister said suspected debris there may have sunk.
For families of the passengers, the process has proved to be an emotionally wrenching battle to elicit information, their angst fuelled by a steady stream of speculation and false leads.
In a Beijing hotel where the bulk of Chinese families have been awaiting information, the deadlock prompted rage over perceived Malaysian incompetence.
Angry relatives are meeting with officials every day, but so far they can offer little consolation.
Hishammuddin Hussein, Malaysia’s Acting Transport Minister said: “It’s very, very difficult because the one question that they really want to know is the answer to which we do not have, which is ‘where are their loved ones, and where is the aeroplane?’”
He also said searchers were facing the “long haul” but were conscious that the clock was ticking. The plane’s “black box” voice and data recorder only transmits an electronic signal for about 30 days before its battery dies, after which it will be far more difficult to locate.
Aircraft and ships have renewed the search in the Andaman Sea between India and Thailand, going over areas that have already been exhaustively swept to find some clue to unlock one
of the biggest mysteries in modern aviation.
The international team hunting Flight MH370 in the remote southern Indian Ocean yielded no results on Friday, and
Australia’s deputy prime minister said suspected debris there may have sunk.
For families of the passengers, the process has proved to be an emotionally wrenching battle to elicit information, their angst fuelled by a steady stream of speculation and false leads.
In a Beijing hotel where the bulk of Chinese families have been awaiting information, the deadlock prompted rage over perceived Malaysian incompetence.
Angry relatives are meeting with officials every day, but so far they can offer little consolation.
Hishammuddin Hussein, Malaysia’s Acting Transport Minister said: “It’s very, very difficult because the one question that they really want to know is the answer to which we do not have, which is ‘where are their loved ones, and where is the aeroplane?’”
He also said searchers were facing the “long haul” but were conscious that the clock was ticking. The plane’s “black box” voice and data recorder only transmits an electronic signal for about 30 days before its battery dies, after which it will be far more difficult to locate.
Aircraft and ships have renewed the search in the Andaman Sea between India and Thailand, going over areas that have already been exhaustively swept to find some clue to unlock one
of the biggest mysteries in modern aviation.