Flight MH370: Chinese families want Malaysian government to apologize for disaster handling

Families of Chinese passengers from the missing flight MH370 have vented their anger at Malaysian government officials, after arriving in Kuala Lumpur.

Chanting “Tell us the truth”, they said they wanted the Malaysian prime minister to apologize for what they regard as misleading statements.

Eight ships and nine planes searched around 97,000 sq miles of Indian Ocean for debris on Sunday.

The Beijing-bound plane disappeared on March 8 with 239 people on board.

International investigators have concluded that, based on satellite data, the missing Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 crashed somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean.

The search zone shifted on Friday after further analysis. But while aircraft continue to spot debris in the water, nothing recovered by ships has so far been verified as being from the plane.

Some relatives of the 153 Chinese passengers on board Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 have refused to accept the Malaysian account of events and blame the authorities.

On Sunday, several dozen family members travelled from Beijing.

After landing in Kuala Lumpur they held a news conference at a hotel holding up banners that read “We want evidence, truth, dignity” in Chinese, and “Hand us the murderer. Give us our relatives,” in English.

Their designated representative, Jiang Hui, said they wanted the Malaysian government to apologize for the initial handling of the disaster, as well as for PM Najib Razak’s earlier statement that indicated the plane had crashed with no survivors.

Jiang Hui said the conclusion had been announced “without direct evidence or a sense of responsibility”.

He said the group wanted to meet airline and government officials face to face – although he stopped short of saying that these included Najib Razak, as some relatives had earlier suggested.

Before the relatives travelled to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said the search for survivors would continue.

On Sunday, Malaysian officials cancelled their daily update on the search for a second day.

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