Malaysia Airlines crash: loved ones around the world wait for answers

The long, excruciating wait began just after 6.30am at Beijing Capital Airport.

Up
on the arrivals board at Terminal 3, Flight MH370, a red-eye from Kuala
Lumpur, suddenly flicked from yellow to red. "Delayed," it said.

Out
in the hall, the cluster of friends and relatives waiting for the 153
Chinese on board the flight gradually became impatient.

But
there was no news to be found at the travel information desk, where two
female attendants in bright red coats could only smile and shrug their
shoulders.

Then, an hour after the flight had been due to land,
the bombshell broke. Malaysian Airlines said it had "lost contact" with
its plane and a search and rescue mission had begun. At the travel
information desk, however, there were still no details.

The long limbo, which showed no signs of ending late last night, had begun.

Soon
after, the police came through the hall, searching out anyone connected
to the flight and ushering them into the staff area at the side of the
hall. They knew that the journalists were on their way.

By 9am,
the arrivals hall was filled with two groups: teams of police, in
uniform and in plain clothes, videoing the journalists on their iPhones,
and the journalists, searching for anyone missing their relatives.

When
one woman in a white coat cried out in tears in the middle of the
concourse she was mobbed by cameras and had to be saved by a team of
police.
An hour later, minibuses began moving relatives to the Lido Hotel in downtown Beijing, a half-hour drive from the airport.
"When
we got here, some people who said they were from the airport helped us
to fill in forms with our personal details and asked us to wait," said
one relative, who refused to give her name. "Then we just had to wait".
Rumours
circulated - one suggested the plane had made an emergency landing and
was okay, another that passengers had been spotted in life vests
floating in the sea. A passenger manifest was leaked onto a Chinese
website, with one name oddly blurred out.
At noon, the red line at
the top of the arrivals board, the delayed MH370 blinked off. Still, the
smiling staff behind the desk had no information.
At the hotel,
tempers began to fray. "Malaysia Airlines has not told us a single
thing. No one from the company has even been in to see us," stormed one
relative who made a theatrical exit. "They cannot keep hundreds of us
here for hours without any information."
But as the light began to
fade, the anger gave way to worry and weariness. The hotel made up rooms
for the group and said costs would be taken care of. Many vowed to wait
until they had some resolution on the fate of their loved ones.
The
air rescue crews returned to their bases, unable to keep searching in
the dark. They would begin again at daybreak, they vowed.
And
finally, after the barrage of criticism, Malaysia Airlines said a team
of volunteers would arrive to provide emotional support as the wait
continued, through the long night.