Malaysia Airlines Relatives Clash With Police, Dispute News Claiming Their Loved Ones Are Dead
Relatives of passengers on the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 have clashed with police outside Malaysia's embassy in Beijing, demanding answers and questioning officials on Monday who declared that the missing plane had crashed and that their loved ones were dead.
"I'm so mad," one unidentified family member shared with reporters on Tuesday. He added that there is "no evidence" that Flight 370 crashed in the Indian Ocean.
"If you find something: OK, we accept," he said. "But nothing -- just from the data, just from analysis."
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Relatives have accused the Malaysian government of trying to "delay, distort and hide the truth," and dozens protested around the Malaysian embassy in Beijing, calling for the truth to be revealed. Some even threw water bottles at the embassy and tried to storm the building, clashing with police.
On Monday, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak announced to the world that a new analysis of satellite data by a British satellite company had revealed that Flight 370 crashed in a remote area of the southern Indian Ocean, and that there is no reason to believe anyone could have survived the crash.
"It was released out of a commitment to openness and respect for the relatives, two principles which have guided the investigation," Razak explained.
A number of family members also came forward to share that officials had told them that all lives were lost, bringing to a tragic end any hopes they had of finding their missing relatives alive.
Despite the announcement, China is demanding to see the data on which the conclusions were based on.
Meanwhile, the search for the plane in the Indian Ocean continued on Tuesday but was ultimately suspended for the day due to bad weather.
"We demand the Malaysian side state the detailed evidence that leads them to this judgement, as well as supply all the relevant information and evidence about the satellite data analysis," Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Xie Hangsheng said in a statement.
"The search and rescue work cannot stop now. We demand the Malaysian side continue to finish all the work including search and rescue."
MH370 disappeared on March 8 on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, carrying 239 people on board, but so far no wreckage has been found, and very few questions regarding the plane's disappearance have yet been answered - including how it supposedly ended up in the Indian Ocean and flew for hours undetected.
Australian authorities have warned that the search for the plane is likely to continue for some time, despite narrowing the search area.
"We're not searching for a needle in a haystack," said Mark Binskin, vice chief of the Australian Defence Force. "We're still trying to define where the haystack is."
