Family of passengers still hopeful so long as no firm proof is found

ALOR SETAR: As long as no firm proof is found such as pieces of wreckage of the aircraft, the families of the passengers of Malaysia Airlines (MAS) MH370 are still hoping they are safe.
Tan Tuan Lay, 53, the mother of passenger Chew Kar Mooi, 31, said she and her family were shocked after hearing the announcement that the aircraft, boarded by her daughter, had ended its flight in the southern Indian Ocean last night.
She said she received a short messaging system from MAS at 9.42pm last night alerting them on the announcement to be made by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak but was not told of the shocking news.
"Little did we expect the shocking news which announced that the aircraft had ended in the Indian Ocean. We are all extremely sad and cannot accept the reality," she said when met at her house at Simpang Empat Kerpan, Air Hitam near here, today.
The mother of the Maybank officer in Kuala Lumpur said, as long as no legitimate proof was met, she and her family still had a hope of their daughter returning to the family fold.
"There was no finding of any object connected to the aircraft. It is only from a satellite image. We still harbour hope of seeing her (Chew) safe," she said.
A Bernama check at the house of International Trade and Industry Ministry (Miti) officer Mohamad Sofuan Ibrahim, 33, in Jalan Kota Tanah, here found the house unoccupied.
A neighbour, Mohd Huzaimi Ahmad Shater, 21, said the parents of Mohamad Sofuan were said to have gone to Kuala Lumpur last night at 10pm after getting the latest news on the aircraft their son had boarded.
Meanwhile, in JITRA, a brother to another passenger, Andrew Jee, 42, said his family would not go to Kuala Lumpur, but would stay at home in Taman Rasa Sayang, Jitra until accurate information was received. He said if members of his family were asked to go to Australia, only his mother Tan Giat Gua, 68, would go accompanied by his uncle.
Andrew said his younger brother Jee Jing Hang, 41, who had two children aged 11 and 13, worked as a computer programmer and owned his own firm in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan.
"Until now his children, who are staying with his ex-wife, do not know what had happened to their father, to protect them from emotional disturbance," he said.
Najib yesterday announced that Inmarsat and AAIB had concluded that MH370 flew through the southern corridor, and its last position was in the middle of the Indian Ocean, west of Perth, Australia which was isolated and far from land.
The MH370 flight with 227 passengers and 12 crew took off from the KL International Airport at 12.41am on March 8 for Beijing, but went off the radar an hour later. The aircraft should have landed in Beijing at 6.30am on the same day. – Bernama