AirAsia disaster rekindles memories for relatives of MH370 passengers

Tearful Chinese relatives of those on board missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 said their torment has been awakened anew by the AirAsia loss in Indonesia, nine months into their nightmare.

"It is just like what happened nine months ago when I heard the news of MH370," said Steven Wang, whose 57-year-old mother was on the flight that remains one of the biggest aviation mysteries ever.

"I can feel the desperation that the next-of-kin are suffering now. It is terrible. It is horrible," he said.

Wang emerged as one of the most vociferous campaigners for answers on how MH370 went missing on March 8, one hour into a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

An unofficial leader of hundreds of Chinese relatives who packed into often rowdy meetings with airline officials in the weeks after the disappearance, Wang was a sombre shadow of his former self after the months of anguish. "Most of the time now we are asking for information, but they say they have nothing," he said.

Two-thirds of the 239 people on board the missing Boeing 777 are Chinese citizens.

A vast multinational search has failed to find any sign of wreckage of MH370, and for other families, coping with their personal nightmare has filled the days since the plane vanished.