On March 8, 2014, the Boeing 777 labeled flight MH370 left Kuala Lumpur for Beijing with 239 passengers on board, but suddenly disappeared from radar screens mid-flight. What followed was the largest international search in aviation history. Due to the lack of answers about the disappearance, the investigations were suspended, but 10 years later the families of the passengers continue to demand justice and the Malaysian Government announced that it is willing to reopen the case.
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The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which took off from Malaysia bound for China with 239 people on board on March 8, 2014, remains one of aviation's biggest mysteries.
Ten years later, families of missing Chinese passengers are still searching for answers. This Friday in Beijing, some of the relatives met with officials from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Before a crowd of journalists gathered near the Ministry and police controlling the demonstration, the father of one of the victims gave statements.
“Where did the plane go?” asked Li Shuce, who does not lose hope of finding his son. “If he is alive I want to see him; if he is dead, I want to see his body.”
Li Shuce belonged to the generation of China's one-child policy, a child who vanished from the face of the Earth. Shuce is just one of several elderly parents who lost their children on the plane on which the majority of passengers, 154, were Chinese.
“My only request: I just want to know what happened to him. We need this,” Gao, one of the mothers who wants to know what happened to her son that early morning of March 8, 2014, told reporters.
A Chinese court is holding hearings on compensation claims for relatives. It is not yet clear what financial obligations the airline may have and no charges have been brought against the flight crew.
However, relatives say they want some compensation for a disaster that deprived them of their loved ones and put them in financial hardship.
Demands on Malaysia and possible reopening of the investigation
As part of the commemoration of the first decade of this air accident, relatives also visited the Malaysian Embassy to raise their voices and demand action.
Malaysia, together with Australia and China, ended a fruitless two-year, $130 million underwater search in the Indian Ocean for the Boeing 777 in January 2017. But earlier this week, as part of the 2024 summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Malaysian Government assured that it would be willing to reopen an investigation if there is new compelling evidence.
![Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim delivers the Gareth Evans 2024 speech at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia, Thursday, March 7, 2024.](https://s.france24.com/media/display/1ee19bd2-dd73-11ee-9671-005056bfb2b6/AP24067202288501.jpg)
“We have taken the position that if there is a compelling case, evidence that there is a need to reopen, we will certainly be happy to reopen,” Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahimen told a news conference.
The Malaysian Ministry of Transport also confirmed that it will meet with the American company Ocean Infinity, the same one that concluded the investigation without success in 2018, to resume the search.
For many of the victims' relatives and case investigators such as aerospace engineer Richard Godfrey, Malaysia is primarily responsible for what happened and “covers up evidence.”
These accusations not only arise because the missing Boeing 777 was from the Malaysia Airlines company and took off from the airport in the Malaysian capital, but also because of the irregularities of the crew and the negligence of the authorities of that Southeast Asian country in the first hours of searching.
An investigative theory puts pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah in the crosshairs because one of the reports suggested that the aircraft suffered air traffic control failures and that the flight path was changed manually, a deviation that was confirmed by satellite data. Furthermore, there was no distress call, no indication of bad weather or technical complications before the plane took off.
The diversion of flight MH370 into the Indian Ocean led researchers to cover an area of deep water the size of North Korea without any conclusive results. They only found a few fragments of the plane.
The disappearance of flight MH370, the eternal enigma
A 495-page report into the disappearance of MH370, published in July 2018, concluded that the Boeing 777's controls were likely deliberately manipulated to divert it from its course, but investigators were unable to determine who was responsible. The report also accuses the air traffic control centers of Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam) of negligence.
However, without recovering the black box or significant physical traces of the plane, investigators were unable to draw conclusions about the exact cause of the disappearance.
This inability to know what happened to MH370 has fueled numerous conspiracy theories, ranging from mechanical error or a remote-controlled accident, to stranger explanations such as alien abduction and a Russian plot.
![FILE - Journalists take pictures of part of the reconstructed forward section of the fuselage after the presentation of the Dutch Safety Board's final report into what caused Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 to crash high over eastern Ukraine](https://s.france24.com/media/display/4d9fee88-dd73-11ee-af63-005056a90284/AP24060490702536.jpg)
Just months after the MH370 case, in July 2014, another Malaysia Airlines flight had a tragic outcome. MH17, which was heading from the Netherlands to Malaysia, was shot down over eastern Ukraine, a region that was in the middle of a war between the Ukrainian Army and pro-Russian separatist forces. There were 283 passengers and 15 crew members on board the flight.
With Reuters, AP and local media
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