Relatives of missing passengers vent anger

Relatives of passengers on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 are growing increasingly angry over the lack of information about the fate of their loved ones.

Wang Zheng’s frustration 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.

His father and mother, Wang Linshi and Xiong Yunming, were both aboard the flight.

The jet’s disappearance on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing has hit China particularly hard, with 153 of the 239 people on board Chinese citizens.

At a hotel 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.

On Saturday, following a meeting airlines and government officials, impatience turned to anger as relatives erupted in shouts of “give us back our loved ones”. A statement issued by relatives afterwards said: “We believe we have been strung along, kept in the dark and lied to by the Malaysian government.”

Hishammuddin Hussein, Malaysia’s defence minister, said officials would “do everything in our power” to keep relatives informed.