Malaysian Airlines Flight 370: Family of Aussie Couple in Missing MH 370 Holds Memorial Service for Rod & Mary Burrows on Sunday
While relatives of many Chinese passengers of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 were angered by the decision of the Malaysian government to close the Family Assistance Centres worldwide and its advice for them to go home and wait for further news, the kin of an Australian couple in the same ill-fated plane have a different response.
They will hold on Sunday a memorial service for Brisbane couple Rod and Mary Burrows to celebrate their lives. The Burrows couple was one of three Australian couples and a New Zealander on the same plane that left Kuala Lumpur on March 8 on its way to Beijing but mysteriously disappeared.
The other Aussie couples on the same Boeing 777 jet was Yuan Li and Naijun Gu of Sydney, friends Bob and Cathy Lawton and New Zealander Paul Weeks who was based in Perth.
In a statement, Jayden Burrows said, "Our family is trying to come to terms with this terrible tragedy. We dearly love and miss our Mum and Dad."
Jayden added, "The love and compassion that they shared and their priority of putting their family first will help us get through this together. We are heartbroken this stage of their life has been cut short."
David Lawton, brother of Bob, also said the family now has to accept that the couple is no longer returning home.
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Meanwhile, despite the Malaysian government sticking to experts' findings that the aircraft probably crashed into the Indian Ocean, two Bangladeshi ships are searching for the missing plane in the Bay of Bengal. Their search was triggered by the claim of Australian company GeoResonance that it found possible traces of an underwater plane wreck in the area.
However, CNN reported that the Bangladeshi navy vessels have yet to find anything, quoting Commodore Rashed Ali, director of the Bangaladeshi navy intelligence.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein is said to be considering joining the Bay of Bengal search despite his previous misgiving about the GeoResonance claim.
At the same time, he admitted, "I just want to stress that by doing that, we are distracting ourselves from the main search. And in the event that the result from the search is negative, who is going to be responsible for that loss of time?"