‘Govt playing cat and mouse with us’

Forty grieving family members are far from satisfied at the answers given at Sunday's meeting.

PETALING JAYA: The family members of MH370 have been silent for 45 days but today they vented their anger and frustration at not receiving any concrete information on the missing plane.

A group who term themselves as ‘United families of MH370′  consisting of 40 grieving families took to task Department of Civil Aviation (DCA), Malaysia Airlines and the Transport Ministry in handling yesterday’s meeting with the next of kin. The meeting was chaired by deputy minister Hamzah Zainuddin who is the chairman of the Next of Kin committee.

In the press statement posted on their Facebook account, the group highlighted 15 vital issues that were not explained by the organisers during yesterday’s closed door meeting.

“We, the united families of MH370, would like to make you aware of some new issues surfacing in this ongoing tragedy,” the statement read.

The group revealed that all family members present were not allowed to ask technical questions as the organisers did not include experts to answer technical questions.

“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,” they said.

“We were told specifically not to ask technical questions anymore,” they added.

The group continued by claiming that the government failed to disclose why it accepted the Inmarsat data for analysis on a never before attempted method. They also revealed that their suggestion for an independent peer review was rejected by the government.

“There has never yet been any independent peer review of the data analysis on ATC, radar or engine ping RAW data, and the government has refused to say why.

“They have failed to share why they would accept a single source (Inmarsat) for analysis utilising a never before attempted method, as their sole grounds for determining that the plane is under the water and all lives lost.

“The next of kin representative have suggested an independent peer review but this was rejected because it is under International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) policy that the data from Inmarsat are protected for privacy and ownership. Qualified peer reviews are common in confidential situations. Why is this different here, especially given the lives of 239 which are at stake,” the group slammed.

Interim payment

The group exposed that until today, there has been no mention of interim payment provided to the families from the flight, even after six full weeks.

“There has never been any mention of interim payment provided to the families from the flight, even after six full weeks and ICAO guidelines are for an interim payment of 30,000 AUD to be paid as an advance on any future settlement. Again, no discussion on this,” they said.

On its last note, the group expressed that the government has no right to settle the case with the issuance of death certificates and final payoffs unless they have found 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.

“Until they have conclusive proof that the plane crashed with no survivors, they have no right to attempt to settle this case with the issuance of death certificates and final payoffs.

“We are in utter outrage, despair and shock,” they said in a statement issued early this morning.

The families’ press statement can be found here.

Last month, 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 at 12.41am. It 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 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 in southern Indian Ocean.

Financial assistance

Yesterday, following the meeting with the next of kin of passengers of MH370, committee chairman Hamzah, who is also Deputy Foreign Minister, said the families have proposed the kind of financial assistance they would need soon.

He said that matter was among the main issues raised at the meeting between him and about 40 next of kin of Flight MH370 passengers at a hotel here.

Hamzah had said their proposals would be brought to the meeting of the committee for study and deliberation, and the government would try its best to help them go through this very trying time.

“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.