SUBANG JAYA, May 18 — National carrier Malaysia Airlines (MAS) has stopped its caregiver services to families of crew members on the missing flight MH370 after discovering they had engaged lawyers, the family members said today.

The five families which had sought the services of Chicago-based firm Ribbeck Law were notified by MAS via e-mail that they should channel all their queries to MAS through their lawyers.

Jacquita Gonzales, 52, the wife of MH370 in-flight supervisor Patrick Gomes, told reporters that her caregiver had stopped giving her updates on the status of the search mission in Perth over a week ago.

“Don’t just put us aside as if we don’t matter anymore just because we engaged a lawyer. It’s not fair,” she said, unable to hold back tears.

While the families thanked Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein for reminding MAS on its commitment to the crew’s next-of-kin, they said MAS hasn’t been reasonable in terminating the caregivers’ services.

Gonzales, whose husband worked for MAS for 35 years, said it was akin to unplugging the families “lifeline”.

“From Day 1, they all said we are family, anything we wanted, they said, just come to us we will help you... that’s why the caregivers were assigned to us,” she said.

Gonzales said their caregivers were the only ones they could engage for detailed news on the ongoing search mission in Australia at a time when the the media attention of the flight is waning.

The jetliner carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members went missing more than two months ago after leaving Malaysian shores, resulting in the largest international search mission the world has seen in the history of aviation disasters.

Satellite and radar data have indicated that the jetliner went down in the wild waters of the Indian Ocean, thousands of miles away from the plane’s original flight path to Beijing.

Despite a massive international search in the Indian Ocean, no trace of the missing Boeing 777 has been found.

Under the 1999 Montreal Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air, which entered into force in 2003, affected families are entitled to receive up to US$150,000 (RM490,000), but it is case-specific.

On May 1, MAS said it is in the process of initiating an advance compensation payment procedure for families of all those on board MH370 and that it will not jeopardise their right to claim compensation in accordance with the law at a later stage.

But Gonzales said the families of crew were not entitled to the compensation.

Lee Khim Fatt, 43, pointed out that his wife, Foong Wai Yueng, has been with MAS for 18 years.

“We are not against MAS, but somehow now they are against us.

“It is like a punishment because we got a lawyer,” he added.

Apart from furnishing information on the search mission, the caregivers also helped the families by assisting them with flight bookings, payments and travel arrangements.

The wife of one of the stewards, Elaine Chew, 35, had requested the services of a MAS’ in-house counsellor for their five-year daughter through her caregiver.

“I made the request before they had discontinued their services but now they said that I have to ask our lawyer to speak to MAS’ lawyer,” related Chew, whose husband was the sole breadwinner.

The families insisted that they engaged their lawyers so that their legal rights were upheld.

They added that they have not heard from Malaysia Airlines System Employees Union (Maseu) despite reports claiming the latter had contacted the crew’s next-of-kin.

But the National Union of Flight Attendants Malaysia (Nufam) has been keeping in touch and has been made aware of the current status.

Also present at the media conference today were chief steward Andrew Nari’s wife, Melanie Antonio, 45, and daughter Maira Elizabeth, 18.

The Malay Mail Online reported last month that Ribbeck Law had filed a lawsuit against MAS and Boeing Co, the maker of the plane used.

Ribbeck Law is representing Indonesian Januari Siregar, whose nephew Firman Chandra Siregar was a passenger on the plane and the first to file legal action over the missing plane.

The American firm had said that it also has “several clients” in the lawsuit over the MH370 disaster and expects to represent the families of more than half of the 227 passengers on board the flight, but declined to reveal the nationalities of their clients.