Relatives of Chinese passengers on board missing Malaysian flight demand answers

As family tensions grow, investigators say they're looking into deleted data from the pilot's flight simulator. Jennifer Davis reports.

Published

12 months ago

Categories

World

Topics

Asia, World

People

Jennifer Davis

Places

China, Australia, Indian Ocean, Asia

Companies

Malaysian Airline System

Transcript

The wait for news on the location of missing Malaysian flight MH370 is taking a terrible toll on the loved ones of passengers at this point - and their emotions are bubbling over. (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN WHOSE SON WAS ON BOARD THE MISSING MALAYSIAN PLANE SAYING: "We don't know until when we'll be waiting, it's been 12 days, my loved one... I don't know where my loved one is... it's been 12 days, where is my son? Why are you not giving me any answers?" About two thirds of the 239 passengers on board the Malaysia Airlines flight that went missing are Chinese and tensions were high ahead of a news conference as relatives voiced their growing anger, fear and frustration. Two women were dragged from the daily media briefing by Malaysian police and forcibly removed after trying to unfurl a banner. One was knocked over in the confusion. (SOUNDBITE) (English) HISHAMMUDDIN HUSSEIN, MALAYSIA DEFENSE MINISTER AND ACTING TRANSPORT MINISTER, SAYING: "I hope then I appeal to everybody that though we understand their concerns we are trying our very best and it is heart-wrenching, even for me." During the daily briefing, investigators said they've received some radar data as they continue searching for the missing jetliner and they are now investigating deleted data from the pilot's flight simulator. (SOUNDBITE) HISHAMMUDDIN HUSSEIN, MALAYSIA DEFENSE MINISTER AND ACTING TRANSPORT MINISTER, SAYING: "Some data has been deleted from the simulator and forensic work to retrieve this data is ongoing, I would like to take this opportunity to state that the passengers, the pilot and the crew remain innocent until proven otherwise. Australia continues to search in the southern Indian ocean for the missing flight as China's foreign ministry announces its found no sign of the missing plane in Chinese territory.