MH370 families express anger, disbelief

Relatives of passengers on board the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 have expressed anger and disbelief at confirmation that a piece of debris washed up on the shore of an Indian Ocean island was from the doomed jetliner.

On Thursday, Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak revealed that paint color matches and maintenance records proved that the wing piece discovered on a Reunion Island beach on July 29 was from the Boeing 777 airliner. The wreckage has been sent to France for closer inspection, as Reunion is one of France's overseas departments.

The plane, bound for Beijing from Kuala Lumpur with 239 passengers and crew on board, went missing an hour into its journey on March 8, 2014.

Several theories have emerged about what happened to the flight, which is believed to have continued flying for several hours without power and its vital communications systems.

Search teams from a dozen nations have scoured large areas of the Indian Ocean in the hunt for wreckage.

Despite Malaysia's confirmation, France took a more cautious line on Thursday, saying there was a "very high probability" that the object came the missing airliner.

Beijing protest

But after waiting so long for a definitive answer to possibly the biggest aviation mystery in history, many families said they were skeptical of the latest developments.

"France is being cautious about it, but Malaysia is desperate to put an end to this case and run away from all responsibilities," Dai Shuqin, the sister of one of 153 Chinese passengers, told the Associated Press as she joined a small demonstration outside Malaysia Airlines' offices in Beijing on Thursday.

Another relative, Zhang Yongli, whose daughter was also on the doomed flight, told Agence France-Presse: "I don't believe this latest information about the plane, they have been lying to us from the beginning."

Bao Lanfang, whose grandson was on board, told AFP that "everyone has been lying to us," before collapsing on the floor and crying outside the Beijing offices of Malaysia Airlines. "I will do anything to see him again."

A handwritten statement posted on Chinese social media and signed "all MH370 passengers' relatives" expressed "serious doubts" over Najib's announcement.

Malaysian national G. Subramaniam, who lost his son S. Puspanathan, said investigators must now look for more debris.

"We want the authorities to expand the search area closer to Africa where the debris was found to look for the main body and the passengers," he told AFP.

Renewed search

France said it would deploy new air and sea resources off Reunion from Friday to hunt for more wreckage from the ill-fated flight.

Local authorities on Reunion said they will begin a detailed search of the coastline from Monday.

On Thursday, Malaysia announced that more debris had been found, including some "window material" and some aluminum foil, believed to be plane debris. But French officials have said no other airplane debris has been found.

The confusion led several Flight 370 families to say they were fed up with the mixed messages from authorities.

"Why the hell do you have one confirm and one not?" said Sara Weeks, the sister of New Zealander Paul Weeks, who was on board. "Why not wait and get everybody on the same page so the families don't need to go through this turmoil?"

Malaysian Jacquita Gonzales, wife of MH370 chief steward Patrick Gomes said: "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."

mm/cmk (AP, AFP)