Malaysia Airlines told Chinese relatives of passengers on Flight MH370 that has remained missing for more than 36 hours to prepare for the worst on Sunday (March 9). Family members were taken to a hotel near Beijing airport, put in a room and told to wait for information from the airline. Malaysia Airlines said at least 152 of the 227 passengers on Flight MH370 were Chinese. We have communicated to the family members that after more than 30 hours without any contact with the aircraft, we believe that the family members should prepare themselves for the worst, said the airlines Commercial Director Hugh Dunleavy, who flew to Beijing after midnight on Saturday (March 8) to deal with the crisis. More than 36 hours after the last contact with Flight MH370, officials said they were widening the search to cover vast swathes of sea around Malaysia and off Vietnam, and were investigating at least two passengers who may have been using false identity documents. Despite dozens of military and civilians vessels and aircraft criss-crossing waters to the east and west of Malaysia, no wreckage has been found, although oil slicks have been reported in the sea south of Vietnam. Dunleavy said the airline is working with the Chinese and Malaysian authorities to arrange transport of families to Kuala Lumpur. We are going to talk to the family members and find out how many of them actually want to travel and how soon, and then we are going to have to work closely with the Chinese authorities and the Malaysian authorities, because a large number of the family members do not have passports. As you know for this, we will require both passports and visas to be issued. Both the Chinese government and the Malaysian government are working with us to facilitate that process. So I do not believe there will be any issues there, but we still have to go through the process, getting photographs, and then get the passports issued, he told reporters at the Lido Hotel, where the families have been gathered. Malaysia Airlines said in a statement on Saturday that it has deployed a team of 94 caregivers to Beijing to provide emotional support to the families, and a second batch would arrive early on Sunday. So what they are here to do is to be empathetic, meet with individual family members, listen to them, understand what their needs are, what their concerns are, what their worries are, the specific details of the family member that they have lost, potentially, and then see what else we can do to help support them through this tough time. They are a support team, that is what they are there for. The primary focus is really how do we take care of these people who are grieving, that is the focus, Dunleavy added, referring to the team of caregivers. Family members have accused the airline of keeping them in the dark and being too slow in their initial response. Some urged the airline to fly them to the Malaysia immediately. Malaysia Airlines is asking all the relatives to fly to Malaysia on designated flights at the same time, but we demand we go there as soon as possible, because we have other affairs to take care of. So we hope the media can help us advocate for this. Because I believe different people and different families feel differently under different circumstances. So we are wondering if we can go there first, said a middle-aged woman, who did not provide her name. Dozens of volunteers from a local Buddhist charity group arrived at the hotel on Sunday morning, offering comfort for the anxious families. We want to comfort the family members and smooth their feelings by accompanying them after this sudden incident, so they become calmer and feel the warmth of society. We want them to feel the love of society by keeping them company and helping them get through this hard time of their life, said one volunteer, Zeng Yunji. The 11-year-old Boeing, powered by Rolls-Royce Trent engines, took off at 12:40 a.m. (1640 GMT Friday, March 7) from Kuala Lumpur International Airport when it went missing without a distress call. Aboard were 227 passengers and 12 crew. It last had contact with air traffic controllers 120 nautical miles off the east coast of the Malaysian town of Kota Bharu.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 11:43:39 +0000
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