BEIJING, March 11 — Relatives of Chinese passengers on board missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 declined to accept money from the airline today as distrust and frustration at the carrier mounted.
The airline said it had offered “financial assistance” of 31,000 yuan (around RM16,000) to the family of each missing traveller.
But a relative of one of the passengers, from east China’s Shandong province, told AFP: “We’re not really interested in the money.”
“It is all about the people — the people on the plane. We just want them back,” she said at the Beijing hotel where relatives and friends of many of the 153 Chinese passengers — more than two-thirds of those on board MH370 — were waiting anxiously for news.
Ignatius Ong, leader of the Malaysia Airlines (MAS) response team in China, confirmed that the offer had not been taken up.
But he denied the relatives had rejected it, saying they had asked the airline to “review” the terms of the acceptance form.
“There are certain items where there will be a difference of opinion,” he added. “These are very difficult times and we also appreciate that at this time a lot of people are frustrated.”
Relatives have endured days of anxious waiting under an intense media spotlight and some appeared to begin to accept that their loved ones may not have survived.
“We are mentally prepared for the worst,” said one woman surnamed Cao, who told AFP that her husband’s brother had been on board as part of a group accompanying Chinese artists to an exhibition in Malaysia.
“We feel really helpless and haven’t been to sleep for days as we are very worried,” she added.
Malaysia Airlines has offered to fly two relatives of each missing person to Kuala Lumpur to be closer to the search.
Ong confirmed that 12 had left today, but the airline had said yesterday that it was “deploying an additional aircraft” to Beijing to transport relatives.
But with many saying there was no point going to Malaysia there was no indication that an extra flight had taken off.
Beijing airport’s online departure information system showed a Malaysia Airlines flight, MH5401, listed for 1710, when the company does not normally have a departure. It was described as “cancelled”.
Malaysia Airlines did not immediately respond to inquiries on the flight from AFP.
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China has lost 20 world renown painters and calligraphers and MAS is trying to escape huge compensation to pacify relatives of MH370 victims to accept RM16,000.
Well the Chinese are not stupid. I believe the Chinese Government is looking at around RM3-5 billions.
MAS and the Malaysian Government must be taught a lesson as things have been working on auto for too long.
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