Relatives' anguish over missing Boeing 777-200ER turns to frustration and anger as search continues

As the fate of the 239 people aboard missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 transfixed people around the world this week, there was an outpouring of sympathy for the relatives and friends anxious about their loved ones.

Of the 227 passengers on the Boeing 777 flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, 154 are Chinese, many of whose relatives were given accommodation in a Beijing hotel as they waited for news.

As a search involving 12 countries including China continued in seas off Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, their worries turned to frustration and anger at times as information, often conflicting, trickled in.

During the week some of the relatives were flown to Kuala Lumpur, where they received further briefings.

Almost six days after flight MH370 took off from the Malaysian capital, the mystery of its disappearance seemed no closer to being solved.

(China Daily European Weekly 03/14/2014 page14)