Missing Malaysian jet: Traumatized families seek emotional support

By: 11 years ago

A Chinese relative of passengers aboard a missing Malaysia Airlines plane is surrounded by media as she answers questions about how families are being compensated outside a hotel room set aside for relatives or friends of passengers aboard the missing airplane in Beijing, China Tuesday, March 11, 2014. AP

SHAH ALAM — Five families of passengers on board the Malaysia Airlines MH370 flight that went missing on Saturday received counselling from the Welfare Department at a hotel in Putrajaya on Tuesday.

Director-general Datuk Norani Hashim said the families had personally approached the department’s counsellors to seek emotional and psychological support.

“As most of the Malaysian passengers are Chinese, we also assigned 11 Chinese counsellors, just in case. It may help to make them feel more at ease,” she told reporters here.

Norani launched the Selangor-level Child Protection Policy for Voluntary Child Welfare Organizations here.

A total of 19 counsellors from the department and 28 more from other agencies have been assigned on shift to provide 24-hour counselling services to more than 100 affected family members who are temporarily staying at the Everly Hotel.

MH370, which was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members, went missing about an hour after leaving the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang for Beijing at 12:41 a.m. on Saturday.

The aircraft was scheduled to arrive at its destination at 6:30 a.m. the same day. – Bernama