For almost three years Jiang Hui has roamed the world seeking answers about his mother’s disappearance.
He has protested outside embassies and temples in Beijing, scoured beaches in Madagascar, visited search teams in Australia and issued increasingly desperate pleas for information.
On Tuesday, Jiang, 44, whose mother was one of 239 people on Malaysia Airline’s flight MH370 when it vanished in 2014, saw his hopes of finding the truth crushed as Australian authorities announced they were suspending their hunt for the missing passenger jet.
“I feel so disappointed and very furious,” Jiang said, as the news sunk in.
What happened to MH370?
Malaysia Airlines flight 370, flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 227 passengers and 12 crew, vanished on 8 March 2014. There was no trace of the plane until a flaperon washed up on Réunion in the Indian Ocean in 2015. Several pieces of debris found around east and south Africa have since been assessed to be from the missing aircraft. A seabed search led by Australia, backed by Malaysia and China, is due to continue until early 2017. Theories – all unproven – have ranged from crew involvement or hijacking to onboard fire or catastrophic technical failure.
“There are lots of things they could do, but they have just decided to leave with things still unresolved … We often hear slogans like ‘safety comes first’ or ‘lives are the most important thing’. But when it comes down to it, when those slogans are put to the test … they are meaningless.”
Jiang’s mother, 62 at the time of the disaster, was one of 153 Chinese passengers on the Beijing-bound Boeing 777, which went missing shortly after taking off from Kuala Lumpur’s international airport in the early hours of 8 March 2014.
Also on board were citizens of Australia, Canada, France, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, Taiwan, Ukraine and the US.
Three years on, the families of the victims remain almost completely in the dark about what happened to their loved-ones.
Many Chinese relatives remain deeply suspicious of the official narrative, which is that the plane veered off course shortly after takeoff, doubled back across the Malay Peninsula, and ultimately crashed into the Indian Ocean for reasons that are still obscure.
“I cannot believe it. It doesn’t make sense that a plane could turn around and fly over the whole country but they didn’t take any action. There must be some more information that is still being hidden from us by the government of Malaysia,” Steve Wang, whose mother was on the plane, said on Tuesday.
An emailed statement, that was reportedly send to next of kin on Tuesday, said: “Despite every effort using the best science available, cutting-edge technology, as well as modelling and advice from highly skilled professionals who are the best in their field, unfortunately, the search has not been able to locate the aircraft.”
“The decision to suspend the underwater search has not been taken lightly nor without sadness,” it added.
However, many Chinese relatives appeared not to receive official notification that the hunt for MH370 was, for now, at an end. Wang Le, whose mother, Zhang Chi, was on the flight, said: “I have no idea about the joint announcement … I haven’t received any emails so far … I’m not aware of what is going on here.”
Steve Wang said families in Beijing had only learned of the search’s suspension through the media and had not been due to meet Malaysia Airlines officials until Wednesday.
“It’s like they don’t show any respect for our feelings. I don’t think this is right,” he said.
Relatives reacted to the news with anger and disbelief. “I feel so furious about the suspension, which is only due to a shortage of funding,” said Jiang, who accused Malaysia, Malaysia Airlines and Boeing of contributing “far from enough” to the search effort.
KS Narendran, whose wife was on the plane, called the decision “a betrayal” and a “blow to all those who have worked tirelessly to find answers and find the plane”.
Steve Wang said: “We are disappointed and angry. They promised that they would keep on searching until they finally found the plane.” He called on the Chinese, Malaysian and Australian governments to pump more resources into the hunt for MH370.
“I just want to say that this is not a missing cellphone or a lost wallet. It is a plane and it contains 239 lives … Life is worth more than money.”
One victims’ group known as Voice 370 accused the search team of failing in its “inescapable duty” to expand the quest to find MH370, which has cost an estimated $150m (£123m).
“Commercial planes cannot just be allowed to disappear without a trace,” it said. “The search must go on.”
But on Tuesday night the reality was starting to sink in that this was now unlikely and that the most perplexing mystery in aviation history would almost certainly remain unsolved.
Nan Jinyan, whose brother’s fiance was on the flight, told the Associated Press that relatives now had to accept that “the missing plane can’t be found, maybe for ever”.
Others insisted that, even now, they refused to give up hope. “I told my children to keep praying,” said Lee Khim Fatt, whose wife, Foong Wai Yueng, was one of the flight attendants on MH370. “As long as nothing is found, nothing is proven.”
“We cannot stop and accept what we’ve been told,” said Jiang. “That’s impossible.”
Additional reporting by Wang Zhen
