Najib, Rosmah meet families of victims of MAS air tragedies

PUTRAJAYA: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor today met with the families of the Malaysian passengers and crew of the two Malaysia Airlines (MAS) air tragedies, at Seri Perdana.
Najib and Rosmah took the opportunity of Aidilfitri to give them assurances and advised them to be courageous in this trying time.
The two tragedies occurred within the space of five months this year.
Flight MH370 dropped off radar on March 8 as it flew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 227 passengers and 12 crew on board. The Boeing 777 aircraft has yet to be found, even after an exhaustive search in the southern Indian Ocean where it is believed to have gone down after veering off course. Flight MH17 crashed in eastern Ukraine on July 17 as it was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur with 283 passengers and 15 crew on board. The Boeing 777 aircraft is believed to have been shot down over the troubled country.
Fatimah Ibrahim, 62, mother of Flight MH17 co-pilot Muhamad Firdaus Abdul Rahim, said she felt relieved after the meeting.
"At the meeting, the prime minister gave us words of encouragement and advised us to be bold in facing the situation.
"Now, I feel relieved and am less stressful," she said at the Seri Perdana Complex.
Azman Ibrahim, 50, an uncle of Muhamad Firdaus, said Najib had promised that the Malaysian government would do its best to have the bodies brought to Malaysia as soon as possible.
"The prime minister informed us the process (of bringing over the bodies) would take time as it involved international parties and there were many procedures to adhere to," he said.
Madiani Mahdi, 42, wife of Flight MH17 steward Shaikh Mohd Noor Mahmood, 42, said the meeting with the prime minister had raised her spirits to have greater patience in her moment of grief.
She said she and her two children, aged 13 and two, had accepted the loss of Shaikh Mohd Noor as the will of God. – Bernama