Relatives of the victims of Malaysia Airlines MH370 demand justice ten years after the biggest mystery in commercial aviation

It was the early hours of March 8, 2014. Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 had taken off without incident from the capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, bound for China, Beijing.

“Good evening, Malaysia three seven zero,” the Malaysian traffic control center recorded at 01:19 (local time), when the plane left the country's airspace to enter Vietnam's airspace.

But he never did.

Two minutes later, that Boeing 777 stopped emitting its location signal and, as detected by military radars, turned abruptly to the west, instead of continuing on its planned route, heading north.

10 years have passed since then, but what happened in the hours that followed remains the biggest mystery in the history of commercial aviation.

A plane accident from which the device has not been recovered nor has conclusive evidence been found to know what happened to the 239 people who were on board.

153 of the passengers were of Chinese origin.

A decade later, their families are still waiting for answers to close a wound that remains open.

This Friday morning, coinciding with the day that marks 10 years since the incident, a group of relatives of the missing people met with officials from the Chinese Foreign Ministry to demand justice.

The meeting took place in a commercial building near the Foreign Ministry in Beijing, under intense police presence.

“I think my son is alive.

We hope he can return soon,” said Li Shuce, 60, father of one of the passengers.

In these two decades, Chinese families have tried to put pressure on the authorities so that the search does not end.

Their efforts have not yet borne fruit, but they do not lose hope.

“It's been 10 years.

What is the truth?

Is this a political conspiracy?

"We don't know anything," said Li, shocked, and surrounded by agents, who controlled the crowd of reporters present.

He is the only one of the victims' relatives who has been allowed to make statements to the press.

In his opinion, the meeting “went well,” but he condemns that the authorities have not said how they are going to help them.

Hypothesis about the accident

The disappearance of the Boeing 777 has been explained through various unproven hypotheses, ranging from an accident in the Indian Ocean due to a technical failure to an accident caused by the pilot.

But it has also given rise to the most bizarre conspiracy theories, from a kidnapping orchestrated by the CIA or North Korea, to an extraterrestrial abduction.

In 2018, the official report from Malaysian authorities concluded that “the causes of the disappearance of MH370 cannot be determined with any certainty.”

That investigation was strongly criticized in China, the country with the highest number of victims.

In addition to the 153 Chinese passengers, 50 were Malaysians (12 were part of the crew), seven Indonesians, six Australians, five Indians, four French, three Americans, two New Zealanders, two Ukrainians, two Canadians, one Russian, one Dutch, one Taiwanese and two Iranians.

Li was blunt this morning: “I want the Government to discover the truth and explain to us what happened.”

His son would turn 41 in 2024. A native of Chengde, a city near Beijing, he worked for a Malaysian company and was returning from vacation to see his parents that March 8.

“He is a bogeyman, very intelligent,” his father has described him.

“We are getting old and we have nothing.

I want to know if my son is alive or dead and, if he is dead, I want to see his body.

What happened to the plane?

Where has he been all this time?

“I want him to be found as soon as possible,” Li condemned.

In 2016, after Malaysia declared the disappearance of the flight “an accident,” Malaysia Airlines offered compensation of 2.5 million yuan (318,000 euros, at current exchange rates) to the family of each victim, on the condition that they not take any further legal action against the airline.

Some accepted the agreement, but 40 did not.

In November last year, a court in Beijing began hearing their compensation claims, but since the company is based outside China, their cases could end up being dismissed.

Family protests

This Friday afternoon, a larger group of relatives of the victims gathered near the Malaysian Embassy in Beijing.

Almost fifty uniformed police officers, plus another dozen in plain clothes, have limited access to the Malaysian diplomatic representation and made it impossible for the press to approach the victims.

Some of them have attempted to approach the media, but the agents have prevented it.

It is the way in which the Chinese authorities have prevented the Government's most important annual political event, known as the Two Sessions, from being overshadowed by a protest.

After 20 minutes of negotiations with the police, part of the group of relatives received the go-ahead to head towards the Malaysian delegation.

EL PAÍS has not been able to verify if they were received by embassy employees or if they limited themselves to demonstrating peacefully at the door.

For their part, the rest of those affected, about 15, remained outside the police cordon and for about 10 minutes shouted slogans such as “Malaysia!

Give me back my relatives!”

or “Without my loved ones there will be no reconciliation!

“We will not give up!”

“This is an international matter in which all countries must cooperate,” Li insisted in a message later sent to EL PAÍS.

Last weekend, Malaysia's Transport Minister, Anthony Loke, announced that his country is willing to resume the search with the American company Ocean Infinity, which specializes in exploring deep waters.

The North American firm made an attempt in 2018, which ended without progress after 90 days.

A year earlier, Australia, China and Malaysia suspended their joint operation, which for almost three calendars covered an area of ​​120,000 square kilometers in the Indian Ocean, maneuvers in which more than 130 million euros were invested.

According to the reconstruction of the events carried out by the Government of Malaysia, flight MH370 disappeared 40 minutes after takeoff, when upon leaving Malaysian airspace and entering Vietnam airspace, someone in the cockpit manually turned off the communications system and the signal of the transponder was lost.

Shortly afterwards, the plane changed course manually and therefore intentionally.

According to the official investigation, the plane flew for about six hours towards the Indian Ocean until it allegedly ran out of fuel and fell into the water.

At the moment, confirmed remains of the plane, and others that presumably belong to it, have been found on the African coast and on islands in the Indian Ocean.

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