BEIJING (AP) \u2014 K. S. Narendran never boards a flight without feeling terror. And he doesn\u2019t expect that to change without answers to what happened to the plane carrying his wife three years ago.
His wife, Chandrika Sharma, was one of the 239 people aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared over the Indian Ocean after veering far off course on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. After a fruitless search, the governments of Australia, China and Malaysia announced Tuesday that they were suspending their efforts.
Some relatives of Flight 370\u2019s passengers expressed anger, disappointment and a resolve to press authorities to resume their efforts and find out exactly what happened. Others said they understood that the search \u2014 the most expensive of its kind in aviation history \u2014 had to come to an end.
\u201cThere\u2019s not a day that passes without spending significant amount of time thinking about what the state of the search might be,\u201d Narendran said Tuesday in a phone interview. \u201cWhile it\u2019s probable that we\u2019ll never see our family members again, it doesn\u2019t take away the fact that we would still like to know what happened.\u201d
Li Xinmao, whose daughter and son-in-law were on the plane, called Tuesday\u2019s announcement \u201cunacceptable\u201d and the governments of Malaysia and China \u201cirresponsible.\u201d Nearly two-thirds of the people aboard Flight 370 were Chinese.
\u201cNo matter how much we protested, they wouldn\u2019t take our complaints, and it has become useless for us to protest,\u201d Li said. \u201cEven so, I will continue to protest because I just can\u2019t accept the result.\u201d
Search crews spent nearly three years trawling a 120,000-square kilometer (46,000-square mile) area where the plane was believed to have gone down, an effort that cost an estimated $160 million. They did not find the main underwater wreckage, the black box data recorder, or any sign of the 227 passengers and 12 crew members aboard the aircraft.
A team of international investigators said in December that the plane may have fallen in a different area based on where more than 20 items of debris have since washed ashore. But Australia\u2019s transport minister said the new analysis did \u201cnot give a specific location of the missing aircraft,\u201d and expanding the search based on that finding would be unlikely.
Narendran said he thought Australian officials wanted to \u201cbury the search\u201d rather than suspend it. A group representing victims\u2019 families, Voice370, said extending the search was \u201can inescapable duty owed to the flying public.\u201d
Nan Jinyan, whose brother\u2019s fiancee was killed, was more resigned.
\u201cIt has become a fact that the missing plane can\u2019t be found, maybe forever,\u201d Nan said. \u201cWe have no way but to accept it.\u201d
Jeanette Maguire, who lost her Australian sister and brother-in-law, said she and others knew rescue efforts were too expensive to continue indefinitely.
\u201cWe were hoping and praying that wouldn\u2019t be it and we would have found something of significance for them to be able to keep searching,\u201d Maguire said.
But for many others, finding closure remains impossible.
Lee Khim Fatt\u2019s wife, Foong Wai Yueng, was a stewardess on Flight 370. Three years later, Lee still hasn\u2019t held a memorial for his wife or touched her wardrobe or belongings in their home in Malaysia.
\u201cI told my children to keep praying,\u201d Lee said. \u201cAs long as nothing is found, nothing is proven.\u201d
___
Associated Press writers Rod McGuirk in Canberra, Australia; Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and news researcher Yu Bing in Beijing contributed to this report.
comments
Need a break? Play a quick game of solitaire or Sudoku. Or take one of our fun quizzes!
See photos of past presidential inaugurations.<\/p>\n

\n

\nSimilarity rank: 12\n<\/div>\n

Sentiment rank: -2.8<\/div>\n

\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n