MH370 families refuse to give up hope, instead launch campaign to fund search for the missing jet
The flight carrying 239 people – more than half of whom were Chinese nationals – went missing on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing nearly three years ago
Families of passengers on board missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 have launched a campaign to privately fund a search for the aircraft.
Flight MH370, carrying 239 people – more than half of whom were Chinese nationals – went missing on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, nearly three years ago, on March 8, 2014. Australia, Malaysia, and China jointly called off a two-year underwater search for the aircraft in January.
Grace Nathan, a Malaysian lawyer whose mother, Anne Daisy, was on the plane, said the families hope to raise US$15 million to fund an initial search north of the previous search area.
“We won’t start fundraising until we’re sure that the governments are not going to resume the search and until the current data has been fully reviewed and analysed,” she said at the campaign launch and MH370 memorial event at a mall in Kuala Lumpur.
We won’t start fundraising until we’re sure that the governments are not going to resume the search
The three governments say they will resume the search if any credible evidence on the whereabouts of the plane emerges. International experts last year assisted Voice 370, a support group for MH370 next of kin, in mounting their own search along the East African coast where debris had been discovered.
“They pinpointed to us accurately where the debris would have made landfall,” Nathan said. “They’ve been very helpful both on a personal level and to the investigation.”