100 Days On: 'Will our families come home soon?'

These are among questions still being asked by the families of those on board flight MH370, exactly 100 days after the Malaysia Airlines (MAS) airplane went missing.

Some 20 family members of MH370 passengers and crew this afternoon gathered here today to commemorate the 100th day since that fateful day on March 8. They played a 'Father's Day' tribute video, folded paper planes and released helium balloons together in remembrance of their missing loved ones.

"It has been too long. It's been 100 days, how long more? Another 100 days? I hope not," Jacquita Gonzales, the 52-year-old wife to MH370 in-flight supervisor Patrick Francis Gomes, told Astro AWANI at the event.

Gonzales said life has changed for her and her family, and though it has been difficult to adjust, she still held onto the hope of seeing her husband again one day.

"Things have changed for us. I now have one partner missing, one less person at the table, one less person at a function.

"We're still hoping that the empty place will be filled. But we won’t know until the fat lady sings, so they say," said Gonzales.

Gonzales said while the families have decided not to celebrate Father's Day today, they still remembered the day dearly and silently wished the men in the families accordingly, including her husband.

"Last Father's Day, we had so much fun and laughter. We all ate steamboat together at home. This year, we are wishing him through these folded paper planes," Gonzales said, holding up the colourful origami planes that the participants of a MH370 family programme today used as messages to their lost loved ones.

Gonzales said the waiting, for more than three months now, has been difficult for everyone but most of the families do not want the authorities and other parties to slow down the search.

"We don't want it to stop. Don't ask us to move on. We want all the help we can get to get closer to the search," she said.

The family to flight steward, Mohd Hazrin Mohamed Hasnan or 'Rain', today urged the authorities to be more truthful about the missing flight.

"We want the government to be in control. Don’t neglect us just like that. Let us know what they know. Don’t beat around the bush,” said Rain's sister Syafina Hasnan.

The 25-year-old marketing executive said, the family believed that the plane was “definitely” not at the southern Indian Ocean, the area where authorities have been spending most time scouring for signs of the plane.

“It is definitely not there. We strongly believe it. Logically thinking, something must have floated, we know," said Syafina.

Her sister, 36-year-old Rina Hasnan said even former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed had raised doubts that the plane fell into the southern Indian Ocean.

"I don’t understand why people keep telling us ‘enough is enough’… ‘they are dead, so what?’… ‘get a grip, swallow the truth’. These people, they just don’t know what we are going through.

"We don’t want to drag this story either. We can face the truth, but we want evidence, I want to know what happened to my brother," said Rina, who said she was unable to move on with life as normal.

"His daughter, Iman, she is five. And she was very, very close to her father. He was a doting dad. It is sad to see that he could not see his newborn son, Muhammad.

"Iman, I think she understands. She misses the father, but she doesn’t express it. She knows her father is not coming back," said Rina.

Another family member who wished anonymity, said he believed that the government was hiding something from the families and the public.

"I really do believe they are hiding something. In Parliament, they don’t even allow it to be debated. They said it was a secret. What is this? X-files? What is happening behind our backs?" he said.

Another family member questioned why the government was until today unable to properly talk to the family members.

"What is the government doing? Like even this event, we organised ourselves.

"So many issues, until today, they cannot tell us or explain to us. All the stuff they say are truly unacceptable. What they are doing is not the professional or correct way.

"I dare not hope for anything anymore. Many of us still want them back. Without proof we can’t say. There has been nothing. Nothing. How can a plane disappear like that? Taken by UFOs? Swallowed by a whale? I just don’t believe they don’t know anything."

For the 11-year-old son of flight steward Junaidi Mohd Kassim, 37, 100 days have passed quickly but the days without doing anything can drag on as well.

"One hundred days have been quite fast," Hareez Danni told Astro AWANI. "But during school holidays, it feels very long. There's nothing to do, just sit in front of the TV all day. Nothing to play at my friends' house," said the Year 5 boy who has moved out of his house so that he is not reminded of his missing father.

"After shifting out, I think about him less. I try not to think about him being here in front of me anymore.