She was among many who attended the third ‘Day of Remembrance for MH370’ at Publika here today. The annual gathering was also a meeting point for them to discuss their next move now that the authorities have called off the search for the aircraft.
“It’s a good opportunity for us family members to get together and talk about our next steps to move forward,” she said.
“It has been an emotional roller-coaster and there are a lot of tears. It’s hard to believe that it’s actually been three years now,” said Lawton, who lost her parents, Bob Lawton and Kathy Lawton, when the plane with 239 people on board went off the radar on March 8, 2014 .
“I hope that more evidence will surface and we want the search to continue.”
On Jan 17, Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai announced that the search for MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean would be suspended until more credible evidence was obtained.
Families of the victims are considering raising funds for a private search.
Spokesperson for the next-of-kin support group, Voice of 370, Grace Subathirai Nathan, said the tentative plan was to raise at least RM67 million to fund this search.
“We are looking to fund a search on the north of the previous search area.
“However, we won’t start fundraising until we’re sure that the governments involved are not going to resume the search and when our current data are fully reviewed and analysed.
“It’s still in preliminary stages but we will do it once we have everything in place,” she said.
Grace said the group had commenced talks with the authorities and experts, including David Gallo who assisted in the recovery of Air France Flight 447 which crashed in the Atlantic Ocean in 2011.
“We are also speaking to the Australian Transport and Safety Bureau and they have pledged their support for us,” she added.
“We have obtained some positive responses and are now working on the preliminary timeline. So, we hope that it will shape up in more days to come.”
Jacquita Gomes, the wife of Patrick Gomes who was the lead steward on MH370 said the drive to raise funds would probably be done online. She said there were no sponsors at the moment.
“We are hoping for the big guns to come forward and help us.”
She said the annual day of remembrance was a good platform for family members to share their feelings and emotions.
“We understand each other’s feelings and it’s a good thing that we get to finally meet each other face-to-face, rather than only communicating via Whatsapp.”