March 8, 2019 will mark five years since the world last saw or heard from Malaysian Airlines flight MH370. On Sunday, families of the missing from four countries marked the upcoming five-year anniversary at an event in Malaysia's capital.
Five years on, the search for the wreckage has been temporarily suspended and no conclusion has been reached on the fate of the plane. Flight MH370, which was carrying 239 passengers, most of whom were Chinese, disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.
It triggered the largest hunt in aviation history, and remains one of its biggest mysteries, becoming an issue of global concern that extends to the larger question of aviation safety.
For Jiang Hui, whose mother Jiang Cuiyun was on board, it was his fifth time at this kind of event with the other relatives of Chinese victims. The long distance to Malaysia, was the main reason most Chinese families did not turn up.
The families of missing MH370 passengers and crew held a memorial event at their own expense for the missing plane. A smaller ceremony will also be held at a venue provided by China's Foreign Ministry in Beijing.
The remembrance event took place in an outdoor location in Kuala Lumpur from 2 to 5 pm Sunday, in a program that included songs, violin and ballet performances.
Tributes and candles were given by next of kin from India, China, and Malaysia. The event also included a review of MH370 radar and ADS-B data by the investigative group.
At the event, Jiang Hui announced his launch of the China Next-of-Kin Web Page on MH370, which will collect and update credible reports, data and news on the investigation. In order to battle rumors and inaccurate news reports, and more importantly, to push forward the search, he created it with other Chinese families and volunteers to provide a credible news source for people connected to the tragedy.
The former sales director of a state-owned enterprise, Jiang quit his lucrative job and has dedicated his life to the search for the missing flight since 2015.
Desperate for clues
However, five years of spending money on searches and investigations has put Jiang under a great deal of financial pressure.
He has visited Malaysia at least 10 times in the past five years to consult local departments, and also many locations where potential debris evidence has appeared such as Australia, Madagascar and Réunion Island. He estimates that the total distance he has traveled is equivalent to four times round the Earth.
Jiang has spent at least half a million yuan on the search and legal support over the last five years, in the hope that his own actions will encourage the investigation team so they will not give up their efforts.
"However, many Chinese victims' families are far worse off financially than me. Some of them have no money to treat illnesses, and some have to go back to farming in their 70s because they have lost their only working family member," he told the Global Times.
Bao Lanfang, who lost her son, granddaughter and daughter-in-law on the plane, insists on burning incense sticks and praying for their safety twice a month at the Lama Temple. She goes to the Foreign Ministry every week to deliver her appeal and wishes for a conclusion to the investigation.
She said at least half the Chinese families are still desperate and struggling for a credible explanation and closure, including those who signed the dispute settlement with the Malaysian government. As the next anniversary looms, Bao told the Global Times that her family is still waiting for answers.
Limited support
Over the last five years, there has been no clear and significant progress on most of the families' key demands, Jiang told the Global Times.
He wrote 11 emails asking whether the investigative team had been officially disbanded, even though the debris discovered off the coast of Madagascar thought to be from the missing flight has yet to be identified clearly, but received no response.
Bao, who is in her 70s, still has nightmares of planes falling out of the sky. She has been desperate for psychological assistance, but this obligatory service was cut off at the end of 2015, which she said was unacceptable.
Jiang Hui told the Global Times that there was little good news in 2018, when their efforts to safeguard their legal rights and interests were repeatedly frustrated.
"The newly rebranded Malaysia Airlines Berhad (MAB) is excluded from the claims, while the bankrupt Malaysian Airline System (MAS) was no longer able to reimburse the families, and the insurance can only cover a small part of the compensation," said Jiang.
In 2018, the lawsuits filed by family members against Boeing Co., the Malaysian government, and the Department of Civil Aviation of Malaysia were all dismissed, which meant that families had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in litigation costs for nothing, Jiang claimed.
For the families of the 239 missing passengers, the last five years have been filled with exhausting legal efforts and endless waiting.
"But I won't give up. I will use the rest of my life to promote the search for MH370 and look for answers. I do not want to go through this life with regrets and questions," Jiang said.
