Families try to raise $5M for MH370 ‘whistleblower’ reward

Several families of Flight MH370 passengers have launched a campaign to collect $5 million to reward any insider who comes forward and resolves the mystery of the Malaysian plane’s disappearance three months ago.

The Reward MH370 campaign will be conducted via fundraising website Indiegogo and aims “to encourage a whistleblower to come forward with information,” the families said in a press release.

By early Monday in Malaysia, the Indiegogo page had raised just $420, with 31 days left to complete its goal. A YouTube video that appears to show relatives of the lost passengers accompanies the call for donations. They hold up signs asking where their relatives are and how such a large plane could vanish.

“We need to provide a substantial incentive for anyone who knows the truth to come forward,” reads an appeal on the fundraising site, which features still photographs of lost loved ones. “We also need independent investigation done by people who have no conflicts of interest in the determination of fault once the plane is found.”

The Malaysia Airlines plane lost contact on March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, with 239 people on board. Two-thirds of the passengers were from China.

The Boeing 777 is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean, but an extensive search has turned up no sign of wreckage so far, leaving frustrated and anguished families of those on board suspecting a cover-up.

Malaysia has taken the brunt of criticism from upset relatives. The country has insisted it is doing all it can and is working closely with Australia, China and other countries to find the jet.

“We are convinced that somewhere, someone knows something, and we hope this reward will entice him or her to come forward,” said Ethan Hunt, a technology company chief who is heading the Reward MH370 project but has no family connections to any of the plane’s passengers.

Sarah Bajc, partner of American passenger Philip Wood, said in a press release that a handful of families were behind the campaign to look at the unprecedented aviation mystery with “a fresh set of eyes.”

“Governments and agencies have given it their best shot but have failed to turn up a single shred of evidence, either because of a faulty approach or due to intentional misdirection by one or more individuals,” she said.

Australia, which is leading the search far off its western coast, and Malaysia have promised that the hunt for the aircraft will continue.

An international team is now determining an expanded search zone of up to 23,000 square miles based on where the aircraft last communicated with an Inmarsat satellite.

Australia has released a request for tenders for a company to provide the expertise, equipment and vessels needed to carry out the deep-sea search.

Al Jazeera and wire services