MAS settled 96 per cent claims from Chinese families

About 96 per cent of the claims submitted by the Chinese next-of-kin of passengers on board the missing flight MH370 has been reimbursed by the Malaysia Airlines (MAS).

Its senior vice-president Jaffar Derus Ahmad said from March 8 to April 21, MAS had received 124 reimbursement claims from some 400 Chinese family members who had stayed at the Lido Hotel here.

Jaffar said out of the total 124 expense claims, some 106 (86 per cent) have been fully reimbursed to the relatives.

"There are some 10 claims (eight per cent) have been approved by the headquarters and we are in the process of transferring the money to the bank accounts of the families," he told the relatives at a regular daily briefing here Wednesday.

Jaffar said however, there were three claims (two per cent) which have been approved by the MAS headquarters but rejected by the families.

He declined to elaborate further on the reimbursement details when Malaysian reporters approached him after the briefing.

During the briefing, one of the next-of-kin, Jiang Hui said the families would not meet Deputy Foreign Minister, Datuk Hamzah Zainuddin if the latter would meet them during his visit to Beijing.

"Unless the deputy minister can answer the technical questions on MH370, we will not welcome him here if he is here to provide only care giving services," he said.

On Tuesday, Defence Minister cum Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said Hamzah, who is also the Next-of-Kin Committee chairman was already in Beijing to brief the families.

It is understood that Hamzah was here to meet the Chinese government authorities to discuss issues pertaining to the MH370.

The families who are desperate for answers, urged MAS representatives to provide the serial number of the black box of Flight MH370 during Wednesday's briefing.

They found it hard to accept the reasons for not handing them the details, despite Jaffar repeatedly saying all relevant documents related to the MH370 have been sealed by the investigation authorities since the first day of its disappearance on March 8.

Flight MH370, with 239 people aboard, left the KL International Airport at 12.41 am on March 8 and disappeared from radar screens about an hour later while over the South China Sea. It was to have arrived in Beijing at 6.30 am on the same day. A multinational search was mounted for the Boeing 777-200 aircraft, first in the South China Sea and then, after it was learnt that the plane had veered off course, in the southern Indian Ocean. After an analysis of satellite data indicated that the plane's last position was in the middle of the Indian Ocean, west of Perth, Australia, Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced on March 24 that Flight MH370 "ended in the southern Indian Ocean".