Family members of passengers lost on missing Malaysia Airlines 370 have attacked the Malaysian government for an investigation they say has been bungled and poorly handled.
“We all want to go back to square one. It’s day 45. We are basically at the same position we were on on the first day,” Sarah Bajc, the girlfriend of Flight 370 American passenger Philip Wood, told Matt Lauer Monday. “We don’t know anything for sure. We want to go back and start over again, but with new people looking at the information.”
Bajc sent an email to media on behalf of “the united families of MH370” listing their frustrations and complaints related to the way the tragedy has been handled. The letter criticizes, among other things, the lack of meaningful updates for family members and access to experts who could answer technical questions about the search.
The letter also criticizes the Malaysian government for failing to get an independent review of data they have found, and failing to notify family members of any new information before releasing it to the public. The letter also assails the government for suggesting it may issue death certificates or provide monetary compensation before the plane is actually found.
“We want to come back to taking this investigation away from the Malaysian government. We believe it’s been mishandled,” Bajc said on TODAY. “As a group of family members, we are gaining strength. We want them to know we are not going to go away. Until they agree to pursue this more independently in a way that we can feel confident in, we are going to get noisier and noisier.”
The note Bajc released explains family members don’t expect investigators to find all remnants of the plane or the passengers “but we do expect at least a tiny bit of concrete evidence.”
“Until they have proof, they have an obligation to make regular pre-payments to the families in need, and they have an obligation to exert themselves beyond dozing and snickering in resolving this case,” the note says.
The letter concludes: “WE ARE IN UTTER OUTRAGE, DESPAIR AND SHOCK!"
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