Beijing: Images of bodies and wreckage floating in Indonesian waters gave relatives of those lost aboard AirAsia Flight 8501 anguish and grief, but they also provided the answers that other families have sought in vain for nearly 10 months. Those with loved ones aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 can only imagine what has happened to them, and can only hope to one day know for sure.
"We have been living in anxiety, fear and hate, and our lives have been utterly messed up, but we as ordinary people are unable to do anything," said Dai Shuqin, whose sister was on the missing plane with her husband, daughter, son-in-law and grandchild.
What happened to MH370, which took off on March 8 from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, en route to Beijing, remains a mystery. The jetliner disappeared after veering off course and flying for hours with its communications systems disabled. It is thought to have crashed about 1,800 kilometers (1,100 miles) off Australia's west coast, but no trace of the aircraft or the 239 people aboard, most of whom were Chinese has been found despite an exhaustive and continuing search.
On hearing the news that the AirAsia plane had lost contact on Sunday morning, MH370 relatives said they immediately sympathized with the families who were in the same position they were on March 8. "I can feel the coldness they are feeling now," said Jiang Hui, whose mother was on MH370.
Two days later, with debris spotted in the sea, it was already a different story. Some families of the Flight 370 victims felt a sort of envy.
Families of those on the AirAsia flight "are luckier than us, because they know what happened soon afterward," said Song Chunjie, whose sister was on the plane on her way back from a photography holiday. "Knowing the bad news is painful, but it's even more painful for us to live with uncertainty and have to wait to know what actually happened."
"They can find (Osama) bin Laden, he's just a single person," added the 50-year-old businessman. "How can they not find such a big airplane? We must get the answers that can stop such a tragedy happening again in the future."
Since Flight 370 disappeared, relatives of the missing have helped each other bear the turmoil of not knowing. Many of them spent weeks together in a hotel in the northeast of Beijing where they waited for news of the flight.
They have forged new friendships, demanded answers and endured some hassles from Chinese authorities, who are wary of any cause that may trigger social instability, even those that seem apolitical.
Relatives say they have been under regular police surveillance, and that 16 of them were detained, with some beaten, in mid-July while at a support center.
