Flight MH370 Families Told Loved Ones Were Dead Via Text Message, Leading To Outrage
Flight MH370 families had been waiting more than two weeks to find out what happened to their loved ones on the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines flight, and now they’ve been told the truth — from a text message.
Authorities determined on Monday that the last place the plane could be definitively placed was over the Indian Ocean, far from land and running low on fuel. This makes it almost entirely certain that Flight MH370 crashed and claimed the lives of the 239 people on board.
But many are now criticizing the manner by which families were told of the deaths. Malaysia Airlines send the families a text message that read:
“Malaysia Airlines deeply regrets that we have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH370 has been lost and that none of those on board survived. As you will hear in the next hour from Malaysia’s Prime Minister, we must now accept all evidence suggests the plane went down in the Southern Indian Ocean.”
Both the Malaysian government and Malaysia Airlines have been criticized for the way they handled the families of those on Flight MH370. The airline often used legal representatives to communicate with families, and often these representatives were unable to answer some of the pressing technical questions like whether they could have survived a drastic change in altitude noted on satellite equipment.
After the Flight MH370 families were informed of the likely crash, a group of families representing some of the Chinese nationals on board issued a scathing statement against the airline, saying:
“Eighteen days have passed during which the Malaysian government and military constantly tried to delay, deceive the passengers’ families and cheat the whole world.
“This shameless behaviour not only fooled and hurt the families of the 154 passengers but also misguided and delayed rescue actions, wasting a large quantity of human resources and materials and lost valuable time for the rescue effort.
“If the 154 passengers did lose their lives, Malaysia Airlines, the Malaysian government and military are the real executioners who killed them.
This week, possibly in response to the criticism, Malaysian defense minister Hishammuddin Hussein ?tweeted about the treatment of Flight MH370 families.
I truly understand there are no words which could console the family members of #MH370. The whole world is with you in these difficult times
— Hishammuddin Hussein (@HishammuddinH2O) March 24, 2014
In these times of grief, I urge the public to give the family members some space, respect their privacy #MH370
— Hishammuddin Hussein (@HishammuddinH2O) March 24, 2014
As for Flight MH370 itself, crews are looking in the Indian Ocean for wreckage but experts say there is a chance it may never be found.
