MH370: No full closure for families

KUALA LUMPUR: Several relatives of those on board MH370 said Thursday’s confirmation that the plane had crashed was not enough to lay the matter to rest, as they reiterated demands for answers on what caused its disappearance. 

“Now I want to know where the main body of the plane is so that we can take out the passengers and get the black box so we can know what happened. Only that, for us, will be full closure,” said Jacquita Gonzales, wife of MH370 chief steward Patrick Gomes. 

Gonzales and some other next of kin in Kuala Lumpur were reacting to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s announcement that an aircraft component known as a flaperon which washed up on an Indian Ocean island had been “conclusively confirmed” as from MH370. 

That ends an agonising wait for families of the 239 passengers and crew who have endured 17 months with no proof that their loved ones were dead or alive. 

“I’m still not satisfied. There are still so many questions left unanswered, so many holes in the puzzle,” said Lee Khim Fatt, whose wife, Foong Wai Yueng, was a flight attendant. 

Sara Weeks, the sister of MH370 passenger Paul Weeks of New Zealand, said the confirmation ended “a week of turmoil”. 

“We’ve had 17 months of nothing ... so actually finding something is the first step towards pinpointing where it is,” Weeks told the Fairfax New Zealand media group. 

Najib’s announcement still leaves the baffling question of what caused the plane to veer off course and fly for hours after its communications and tracking systems were shut off, in what remains one of the biggest mysteries in the history of aviation. 

Malaysian authorities insist that they still do not know what caused the plane to vanish. - AFP

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