It was news the next-of-kin of passengers on board the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 had been hoping for. During a meeting in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday (Apr 16), the Malaysian, Chinese and Australian governments decided the search for the missing flight MH370 would continue - even if nothing was found in the current search zone.
In fact, the governments said the search area would be doubled by an additional 60,000 sq km of the Southern Indian Ocean - the waters where the plane is believed to have gone down in March 2014, after being diverted off its route to Beijing.
The announcement has given family members such as Calvin Shim and Grace Nathan some comfort as many had feared the search would be called off. "I am delighted to know that the governments are extending the search," said Mr Shim, whose wife, flight attendant Christine Tan, was on the plane.
"I am also happy to know that there are plans for recovery should MH370 be found. Recovery however could mean only the black box, fuselage and I am not sure this includes bodies," Mr Shim added.
Ms Nathan, the daughter of MH370 passenger Anne Daisy, expressed relief as well. "There was a lot of apprehension and a lot of talk about the search being called off sometime before the anniversary. So this was really a big relief. I know a lot of us couldn't sleep last night, we were all really, really concerned."
The hunt for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane is now the most expensive aviation search in history. Search teams have already scoured more than 60 per cent of the current priority search zone.
But not one trace of the plane or of the 239 people onboard has been found. This has made closure difficult for their loved ones but the families say the search is important, not just for their sake.
"A much larger impact of them finding the plane is in the interest of aviation safety, so that they can produce remedial measures and prevent something like this from happening again. Because all of us are at risk till they find out exactly what happened," said Ms Nathan.
A statement by the MH370 family support group, Voice370, on Wednesday echoed the sentiment, with next-of-kin saying aviation safety was at risk as long as there are no answers as to what happened to the plane.
Friday 17 April 2015
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/relief-for-family-members/1788216.html
0 comments:
Post a Comment