Like other relatives of passengers of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, Wang Zheng’s frustration and anger over a lack of any certain information about the fate of his loved ones continues to grow two weeks after the plane went missing.
“Biggest of all is the emotional turmoil I’ve been going through. I can’t eat, I can’t sleep. I’ve been dreaming of my parents every day,” said the 30-year-old IT engineer from Beijing, whose father and mother, Wang Linshi and Xiong Yunming, were both aboard the flight as part of a group of Chinese artists touring Malaysia.
The plane’s disappearance on its way from the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8 has hit China particularly hard, with 153 of the 239 people on board citizens of the People’s Republic. It was the first major incident to hit Chinese travelers since they began visiting abroad in major numbers about a decade ago.
China’s government responded with almost unprecedented forcefulness, deploying nearly a dozen ships and several aircraft to the search effort and assigning government officials to meet with relatives and liaison with Malaysian officials.
Relatives such as Wang have put their personal and professional lives on hold waiting for any word of the fate of their loved ones.
At a sprawling hotel complex in Beijing, the relatives rise each morning and eat breakfast — at least those who can muster the appetite — before attending a briefing on the missing plane. Then follows another long day of watching the news and waiting, before an evening briefing that inevitably offers little more information.
Under those conditions, the relatives’ patience has at times worn thin.
Following a brief meeting Saturday with Malaysia Airlines and Malaysian government officials, impatience turned to anger as relatives erupted in shouts of “We want to know what the reality is,” and “Give us back our loved ones.”
“The family members are extremely indignant,” read a statement issued by relatives following the meeting. “We believe we have been strung along, kept in the dark and lied to by the Malaysian government.”
In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein called on “all parties to be understanding during this extraordinary and difficult time,” and said officials would “do everything in our power” to keep the relatives informed.
“I’m psychologically prepared for the worst and I know the chances of them coming back alive are extremely small,” said Nan Jinyan, sister-in-law of missing passenger Yan Ling, a 29-year-old engineer who had worked for the last four years at a company that designs equipment for heart patients.
Like many of the relatives, Nan said that her helpless feelings were worsened by being almost entirely dependent on the media for news, and that she was deeply unhappy with what she called the vague and often contradictory information coming from Malaysia Airlines.
“If they can’t offer something firm, they ought to just shut up,” said Nan, who is representing the family as well as Yan’s 23-year-old girlfriend.
Volunteer psychologist Paul Yin, who has worked with some of the relatives, said not knowing the fate of their loved ones was preventing them from confronting their grief.
“When there is uncertainty for several days, people go from hope to despair, and back again, making it impossible to bring final healing,” Yin said.
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