Jiang Hui remembers his mother saying goodbye to him as she left for her Malaysia Airlines flight, bag slung over her shoulder and promising to return with souvenirs from her trip.
Jiang Cuiyun, then retired aged 72, was one of 239 people on board flight MH370 when it disappeared from radar screens on March 8, 2014, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Despite the largest search in aviation history, the plane has not been found, and its enduring mystery remains a source of enduring pain for the victims’ loved ones.
“Who would have imagined that something so unlikely would happen to their own family?” Jiang Hui, 52, told AFP at his home in Beijing.
He spent more than a decade searching for answers along with relatives of other Chinese victims, who made up two-thirds of the passengers.
The Malaysian Government has recently announced that the search for the missing plane will resume at the end of December.
And a Beijing court ordered the airline this week to pay more than 2.9 million yuan ($411,000) in compensation to some of the passengers’ families.
But Jiang and relatives of other victims remain frustrated by what they say is a lack of “openness” from the Malaysian government and the airline.
Jiang now runs a social media group where families share news about MH370 developments and offer support to each other.
They asked for information including the coordinates of the new search area and the types of equipment and vessels being used, he told AFP.
“But we have not received any response so far,” he said.
He added that some families feel that the search can be “just for show and not give any results”.
– Years of anguish –
Jiang has campaigned around the world to restart investigative efforts, hoping to one day find out what happened to his mother.
When the search for the plane was suspended in 2017, “that period, I believe, was the most difficult of all”, he said.
His house is littered with reminders of the tragedy.
Books on the disaster line on his shelves, along with a model of the Boeing 777 he said helped him understand the structure of the plane his mother was on when she disappeared.
Jiang showed AFP his stash of old T-shirts he wore to MH370 family gatherings over the past decade, and a collection of documents including letters to China’s foreign ministry, court records and maps.
“These are all historical records,” he said, gesturing to his files.
There is no legal case pending in Malaysia, which lost 50 people, including 12 crew members, in the disaster.
– ‘Inhuman’ –
This week’s compensation decision in Beijing applies to each of the families of eight passengers declared legally dead.
But 23 cases, including Jiang’s, are still pending because the families of some passengers did not make similar statements, the court said.
Jiang said the court’s statement implies that if he does not, he will not receive payment.
“I feel that this is asking me to declare my mother dead without any evidence, which is very difficult for me to accept,” he said.
“I find it quite inhumane.”
He keeps looking for answers.
“Finding the plane, finding my lover, and finding the truth – I believe this is something I want to do in my life,” he told AFP.
He is driven by the bond he shared with his mother, an ordinary but strong woman who he said worked a lot for her family.
“Imagine that when the children are older, we, as a family, would travel together, and she would be able to enjoy the following years,” he said.
“I feel like finding her and revealing the truth is the biggest way I can show my respect for her right now.”
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