The ‘United families of MH370′, consisting of 40 grieving families took the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA), Malaysia Airlines and the Transport Ministry to task at a meeting yesterday.
The group highlighted 15 vital issues that were not explained by Deputy Foreign Minister, Hamzah Zainuddin, who chaired yesterday’s closed door meeting.
“We, the ‘United families of MH370′, would like to make you aware of new issues surfacing in this ongoing tragedy,” the group said in a press statement posted on Facebook today.
“Not a single one of our questions was answered yesterday and there were no experts capable of answering technical questions, even though this was supposed to be a technical briefing. We were told specifically not to ask technical questions anymore.”
The group claimed that the government failed to disclose why it accepted the Inmarsat data for analysis. They also said that their suggestion for an independent peer review was rejected.
“We were told that the data from Inmarsat is protected for privacy and ownership. Qualified peer reviews are common in confidential situations. Why is this different here, especially when 239 lives are at stake,” said the group.
“They also failed to tell us why a single source was accepted for analysis, utilising a never before attempted method as their sole grounds for determining that the plane is under water and all lives have been lost.
Interim payment
The group said that until today, there has been no mention of interim payments to families of those on board the flight, even after six weeks.
“International Civil Aviation Organisation guidelines provide for an interim payment of 30,000 Australian dollars to be paid as an advance on any future settlement. Again, no discussion on this,” they said.
The group said that the government had no right to settle the case with the issuance of death certificates and final payoffs unless they have conclusive proof that the plane crashed with no survivors.
“We don’t expect that they will find all of the plane, or all of the bodies, or even that they know everything about how this surreal situation happened, but we do expect at least a tiny bit of concrete evidence. We are outraged, in despair and shocked,” they said.
The families’ press statement can be found here.
Last month, the Boeing 777-200 airliner carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew went missing while on its flight to Beijing about one hour after departing from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport. It left at 12.41am and was to have landed in Beijing at 6.30am the same day.
MH370 disappeared from the civilian radar while flying towards Vietnam over the South China Sea. It is believed to have made a turn and was spotted on military radar on western side of peninsula Malaysia, heading for the Andaman Sea.
Satellite pings from the plane revealed that it diverted from its flight path and headed towards the southern Indian Ocean before ending its flight in the wild, deep blue ocean. Searchers are still looking for the plane.
Financial assistance
Following the meeting with the next of kin of passengers of MH370, Hamzah, said the the government would try its best to help Search continues for Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370the families through this very trying time and look into their proposals.
Hamzah said their proposals would be brought up at the meeting of the committee for study and deliberation.
“We are working closely with them to ensure, like I’ve said before, that their best interest is looked into.
“We understand the desperate need for information (on the fate of the MH370 passengers) by the family members and those watching around the world,” he told reporters.
The closed-door meeting which took more two hours was also attended by the Department of Civil Aviation director-general Azharuddin Abdul Rahman and MAS chief executive officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya.
Alfian ZM Tahir
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