Families of passengers aboard missing Flight MH370 receive compensation

Families of seven passengers aboard missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 have received initial compensation of $50,000 from the air carrier, a Malaysian government official said.

Deputy Foreign Minister Hamzah Zainuddin told reporters Thursday that full compensation would be paid after "the plane is found or we announce the plane is lost." In such case, the airline’s insurance provider would provide up to $11,950,000 in restitution to the families.

Hamzah said the seven claimants included six Malaysians and one Chinese national. He added that procedures are underway to secure initial payments to families of the remaining 232 passengers.

Months of searches have failed to turn up any trace of the missing Boeing 777, which disappeared on March 8 with 239 passengers and crew while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Most of the passengers were Chinese.

In May, a search team in the southern Indian Ocean failed to find wreckage, as they had previously expected. Until debris can be linked to the missing plane, some relatives of missing passengers say they will continue to hope for their loved ones to be found alive.

On Wednesday, about two-dozen relatives of Chinese passengers demanded more information about the missing flight at Malaysia Airlines' regional office in Beijing.

"Please give us the truth and tell us the right way to find our beloved ones," said Dai Shuqin, whose sister was on the plane with her husband, daughter, son-in-law and grandchild.

"It has been extremely hard for us, and we can't take it anymore."

For many, no amount of compensation will ever be enough to settle the matter.

"We do not care about compensation. Please let us know more information," Zhang Qian, whose husband Wang Houbin, 28, was on the flight, told the Associated Press.

Some of the passengers’ relatives expected to receive compensation said they planned to spend the money to bolster search efforts for the missing plane.

On June 8, victims’ families attempted to collect $5 million to offer as a reward to anyone who could provide information leading to the plane’s discovery. The crowd-funded project has garnered little over $29,000 in donations, with just 26 days left until they hit their one-month deadline. 

Al Jazeera and wire services