MH370: Relatives still waiting for official statement

Relatives of Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH370 passengers are still waiting for official confirmation from the authorities on the discovery of a debris in La Reunion Island on Wednesday, which could be from the ill-fated aircraft.

For Selamat Omar, 60, father of passenger Mohd Khairul Azmi, he was not too hopeful the wreckage belonged to MH370 as the distance was too far from the search area in the Indian Ocean.

"Nonetheless I am leaving it all to the government and investigators, whatever they say, I accept. If the debris is from MH370, then I am thankful," he told Bernama here yesterday.

Selamat said MAS has been keeping them informed on each latest development on MH370.

"MAS contacted me on the current development in the search for MH370 including the debris found two days ago," he said.

As for Kelvin Shim, 39, husband of MH370 flight attendant Christine Tan, he was confused whether the debris found could really be part of the ill-fated aircraft since the investigation was still going on.

"Actually I don't know whether the debris found in Reunion Island is part of the aircraft. If it is proven to be part of it, I would really like to go there myself," he said.

He also noted that MAS sent him two emails yesterday and today to inform him about the latest development and one of the emails contained a letter said to be from Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

"They called me to check whether I have received the emails or not and they kept updating and said they would try their best to get the first hand news to us," he said.

For the eldest daughter of MH370 chief steward Andrew Nari, Maira Elizabeth Nari, 19, she hoped for something assuring on the latest discovery.

"I am jittery over the outcome of the investigation team on the find," she said.

She described the latest development on MH370 which was disseminated via social websites as something not credible but she would leave it to the authorities to investigate.

On Wednesday, several images of a wreckage believed to be the flap of a Boeing-777 on social media gave new hopes in the search for the missing MH370 aircraft.

Airlive.net, a website on aviation industry news and information tweeted a picture of a wreckage and uploaded the status "Broken piece of wing found on La Réunion Island, could that be the flap of #MH370?"

Flight MH370 vanished from the radar at about midnight on March 8 last year while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members.