Committee of relatives drafts queries for airline

The committee representing relatives of the passengers aboard missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 went into operation on Thursday and considered the questions to be raised to the Malaysian envoy team that will attend Friday's news briefing.

As of Thursday morning, 113 family members have signed their names on a form to join the committee.

The committee is set up to collect questions and appeals from the family members and work as a platform to release news, according to a statement passed to the family members to review.

A "wishing wall" was put up outside the room in the Metropark Lido Hotel in Beijing where the news briefings are held, and many relatives have written their wishes to see their relatives back soon.

"All 1.3 billion Chinese will give you a warm welcome when you are back," one of the messages on the wall reads.

A prayer service arranged by the committee will be held every day from 9:30 to 10 am.

A member of the committee told China Daily after the discussion that they will ask why Chinese family members in Kuala Lumpur were prevented from being interviewed by journalists.

"Some relatives were carried away when some journalists were interviewing them," he said.

"If the Malaysian government continues doing things like this, we will send more relatives there to support the others," a female relative said.

The family members will also question the envoy team on why the news of the last contact with the aircraft was released one week after the plane was found missing, which the relatives believe has misled the search and rescue.

Hot discussions have developed on WeChat, a popular voice messaging tool on smartphones. By 6 pm on Thursday, the biggest group had 401 members, including reporters and relatives of the people aboard the lost plane.

A group member named Cliff suggested the relatives in Beijing be open to the media, showing what compensation they want to get to the public outside the hotel.

Contact the writers at houliqiang@chinadaily.com.cn and caoyin@chinadaily.com.cn