by Ida Lim
Malay Mail Online
January 29, 2015

PUTRAJAYA, Jan 29 — Families of passengers and crew aboard flight MH370 were left reeling after the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) abruptly cancelled a hastily called media briefing on the still-missing plane.

Jacquita Gonzales, the wife of inflight supervisor Patrick Gomes, said family members found out from reporters today that the DCA was planning on giving a media update, despite having tried on their own to get updates since two days ago.

“It’s not right, we are going through a rollercoaster. One minute this, one minute that, our emotions are whacked right now. We don’t know what to say, what to feel.

“I think for the cabin crew’s family, again a rollercoaster, what do you want to announce, please put us at peace. Tell us, don’t beat around the bush, we are bright, you know,” she told reporters.

Yesterday, Voice370 – the self-styled support group for families of those on board the missing plane – addressed rumours that the Malaysian authorities’ would make a major announcement about the flight, saying they will not accept such declarations from Putrajaya without physical evidence of the plane’s fate.

Gonzales today said that it would be better for the authorities to be honest and frank with the families, as there is little for them to go on at the moment.

“You tell me what’s the actual meaning of loss and missing, between these two, then we’ll know how to feel.

“Right now, we are lost too. We are also lost,” she added.

When asked about a possible declaration that the plane was lost, Gonzales insisted that all those on board wanted to return home.

“I’m sure my husband wants to come home. Anybody who gets lost, they want to come home.

“My husband did not go and not want to come home. He has got a lot to look forward to. Even Intan’s husband also wants to come home. All the families want to come home,” she said, ahead of the DCA’s announcement this evening that the MH370 was an “accident” and all those on board were presumed dead.

Intan Maizura, 33, who was holding a toddler in her arms, was present with the sister of her husband Rain Hasnan – a cabin crew member of MH370.

On March 24 last year, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak confirmed that the missing MAS jetliner MH370 “ended” its journey in the southern Indian Ocean, but stopped short of saying that the Boeing 777 aircraft had crashed into the vast ocean.

Yesterday, news agency Reuters reported Deputy Transport Minister Datuk Aziz Kaprawi as saying the DCA will release an interim report on the investigation into the missing plane on March 7, a day before the one-year anniversary of the plane’s disappearance.

Retired Australian Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, who had led Australia’s response to MH370 and downed flight MH17 in Ukraine, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Monday that it was possible that the missing plane might never be found in the deep waters of the vast ocean.

Flight MH370 disappeared on March 8 last year, dropping off radar coverage not long after taking off from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport en-route to Beijing.

There were 239 passengers and crew on board the plane that remains missing till today, with no indication as to its resting place despite months of searching.