Relatives of jet’s passengers struggle to cope
BEIJING – Like other relatives of passengers of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, Wang Zheng’s frustration and anger over a lack of any certain information about the fate of his loved ones continues to grow two weeks after the plane went missing.
“Biggest of all is the emotional turmoil I’ve been going through. I can’t eat, I can’t sleep. I’ve been dreaming of my parents every day,” said the 30-year-old IT engineer from Beijing, whose father and mother, Wang Linshi and Xiong Yunming, were both aboard the flight as part of a group of Chinese artiststouring Malaysia.
The plane’s disappearance on its way from the Malaysian city of Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8 has hit China particularly hard, with 153 of the 239 people on board citizens of the People’s Republic. It was the first major incident to hit Chinese travelers since they began visiting abroad in major numbers about a decade ago.
China’s government responded with almost unprecedented forcefulness, deploying nearly a dozen ships and several aircraft to the search effort and assigning government officials to meet with relatives and liaison with Malaysian officials.
Relatives such as Wang have put their personal and professional lives on hold waiting for any word of the fate of their loved ones.
At a sprawling hotel complex in Beijing, the relatives rise each morning and eat breakfast – at least those who can muster the appetite – before attending a briefing on the missing plane. Then follows another long day of watching the news and waiting, before an evening briefing that inevitably offers little more information.
Amid the many theories and scant and often dubious, contradictory and disavowed findings, the relatives’ patience has at times worn thin.
Following a brief meeting Saturday with Malaysia Airlines and Malaysian government officials, impatience turned to anger as relatives erupted in shouts of “We want to know what the reality is,” and “Give us back our loved ones.”
“The family members are extremely indignant,” read a statement issued by relatives following the meeting. “We believe we have been strung along, kept in the dark and lied to by the Malaysian government.”
In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein called on “all parties to be understanding during this extraordinary and difficult time,” and said officials would “do everything in our power” to keep the relatives informed.
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