©Reuters. Police officers form queues near the Malaysian embassy as family members of passengers aboard Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 call for the search for the missing plane to be resumed on the 10th anniversary of the plane’s disappearance, in Beijing, China.
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By Mandy Leong
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Every spring, China observes the Qingming tomb-sweeping festival, during which families visit and clean the tombs of their ancestors, making ritual offerings and paying homage.
But for Chinese citizen Jiang Hui, 50, Qingming presents a dilemma: how to honor his mother, Jiang Cui Yun, who passed away 10 years ago aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.
“It feels wrong to go and pay my respects to my mother because she hasn’t been declared dead. But if I don’t pay my respects to her, I miss her terribly and don’t feel able to do anything else in her memory,” Jiang told Reuters in the capital of Malaysia.
“There doesn’t seem to be any alternative method available. Therefore, on that day, it’s like being in an unbearable situation where neither doing nor not doing seems right.”
Jiang’s mother, who was 71 when she disappeared, was among 239 passengers and crew, including 153 Chinese citizens, aboard Flight MH370, a Boeing (NYSE:) 777 that disappeared on March 8, 2014, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in one of the world’s greatest aviation mysteries.
Two underwater searches conducted between 2015 and 2018 in the southern Indian Ocean, where the plane was believed to have crashed, proved fruitless.
Jiang said he has struggled to explain his mother’s whereabouts to her young son and often has an emotional breakdown.
He and the loved ones of other passengers have consistently pushed for authorities in Australia, China and Malaysia to reopen the investigations.
On Friday, he and three other Chinese nationals visited Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s office to present a letter asking the government to launch a new search.
Anwar said this week that Malaysia would be willing to reopen an investigation if there was compelling new evidence.
“Ten years have passed, but the family members’ goal, their original intention, remains unchanged: to find their loved ones, to find the plane. It’s very simple,” Jiang said.
“Bring them back to us, dead or alive.”