KUALA LUMPUR, May 19 — Malaysia Airlines (MAS) denied today that it has stopped all forms of caregiver aid to the families of MH370’s crew members.
In a brief statement carried by Astro Awani, the flagship carrier said it is still in communication with all the crew members’ families, including those who have sought legal counsel.
“Some of the families have appointed foreign lawyers to care for their needs, and these lawyers have instructed MAS to halt all direct communication with their clients, and that MAS channels all related correspondence regarding these crew members to them,” Astro Awani wrote, quoting from the statement in Malay.
The local broadcast channel also reported MAS as saying that the airlines still communicates with the families of those concerned through the Family Support Centre (FSC) and provides them with all the latest developments from the Malaysian government and the Australia-based Joint Action Coordinating Centre (JACC).
MAS was responding to allegations yesterday that the airlines had instructed the caregivers assigned to the families of all 12 crew members on the missing Boeing 777 jetliner to stop all forms of communication.
The wife of MH370 in-flight supervisor Patrick Gomes, Jacquita Gonzales, 52, said that MAS had conveyed this in an official email sent on Friday, informing the families to direct all future correspondences through their legal advisers.
According to Jacquita, the seven of the crew’s next-of-kin had engaged in the services of Chicago-based firm Ribbeck Law for consultation and that it had nothing to do with the services given by the caregivers.
“Don’t just put us aside as if we don’t matter anymore just because we engaged a lawyer. It’s not fair,” Gonzales had said adding that the caregivers were the families’ “lifeline” to any information regarding the search for the missing plane.
Apart from furnishing information on the search mission, the caregivers also helped the families by assisting them with flight bookings, payments and travel arrangements.
Today, the National Union of Flight Attendants (Nufam) demanded that MAS re-establish its caregiver services to the crew’s families.
Insisting that it is within the families’ rights to seek legal recourse, the union’s president Ismail Nasaruddin said the airline’s decision to terminate the support was unwarranted.
“Their spouses are still employees of MAS. Week after week, these families are having to deal with so many issues,” he told The Malay Mail Online.
Flight MH370 vanished from civilian radars with 239 passengers and crew on March 8 on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
No physical trace of the aircraft has been found in what has become largest international search mission the world has seen in the history of modern aviation disasters.
