The families and friends of passengers of the Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 are angry about receiving a text message from the government about the loss of the flight over sea.
"We have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH370 has been lost and that none of those onboard survived," the text message read.
Relatives were depressed, annoyed and frustrated with the way the Malaysian authorities handled the investigation.
"You announce this information today. ... Is it really confirmed? What's your proof? We've been waiting for 17 days. You simply tell us this! Where is the proof? It's wrong to announce the information like this!," one relative screamed, News.com.au reports.
Defending the Airlines decision to convey the critical information over a message, CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said, "...our sole and only motivation last night was to ensure that in the incredibly short amount of time available to us, the families heard the tragic news before the world did....using SMS only as an additional means of ensuring fully that the nearly 1,000 family members heard the news from us and not from the media," abc reports.
The text message was sent to the respective recipients, an hour before Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak made the official statement saying that new satellite data from UK Company Inmarsat showed that the Malaysia Airlines plane was lost somewhere over the Indian Ocean.
The ill-fated MH370 went missing early morning March 8 with 239 passengers on board. The plane left Kuala Lumpur early Saturday for Beijing. The Boeing 777 crossed the eastern coast into the Gulf of Thailand before disappearing from radar screens. The pilots didn't send any distress signals.
Relatives of passengers missing on Flight 370 asked to vacate rooms
The relatives are not only angered with the investigation process, but also accuse the Malaysian Airlines' authorities of being 'heartless.'
The families of passengers missing on Flight 370 were asked to vacate their rooms at a 5-star Kuala Lumpur hotel in Cyberjaya to make way for the Malaysian Formula 1 Grand Prix, to be held 28 - 30 March.
Malaysian Airlines offered accommodation at Kuala Lumpur to about 15 relatives of the ill-fated passengers for up-to-date news on the missing flight. Ximin Wang, who had three relatives on board MH370, has since returned to New Zealand. The remaining relatives are planning to relocate to other hotels that are yet to be booked by the Airlines.
"It is hard enough waking up every day, and now they want to move us," said one woman. "They are really so heartless," The New Zealand Herald reports.
Search for Boeing 777 suspended due to Bad Weather
Stormy weather forced Australian authorities to suspend search operation for the Boeing 777.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority said Tuesday that gale-force winds, large waves, heavy rain and low clouds forecast for the area "would make any air and sea search activities hazardous and pose a risk to crew," CNN reports. Officials said that teams will restart search operations Wednesday, provided there's agreeable weather.
Meanwhile, Australian officials spotted two objects in the southern Indian Ocean that could belong to the flight. One object is "a gray or green circular object," and the other is "an orange rectangular object," the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said.
Earlier Monday, a Chinese military plane also spotted "suspicious objects" when it was scouring the same area.
Both the Australian naval ship HMAS Success and a U.S. surveillance plane dispatched to retrieve the objects were unable to find them.
So far, none of the discoveries have been definitively linked to Flight 370.
