The latest Malaysia Airlines disaster has rekindled the grief of MH370 relatives who say the new crash bears out their furious criticisms of the nation´s flag carrier and government.
Flight MH17, a Boeing 777-200, went down in strife-torn eastern Ukraine on Thursday with 298 passengers and crew, mostly Dutch citizens.
The tragedy has reopened the deep emotional wounds caused by the March 8 disappearance of flight MH370, whose fate remains one of the biggest aviation mysteries ever.
Many of them have repeatedly accused the airline and Malaysian government of withholding information and of suspicious conduct in handling the probe into the disaster.
"My heart is breaking for another 295 souls on board, and another 295 families. Now I cannot stop shaking," said Sarah Bajc, partner of MH370 passenger Philip Wood.
US officials said MH17 was shot down by a surface-to-air missile, a possible casualty of a violent rebellion by pro-Russian insurgents.
But Bajc said "it was only a matter of time" that a new tragedy would hit struggling Malaysia Airlines.
Bajc is among a group of vocal MH370 relatives who have criticised the government and airline´s handling of the search for the missing plane and investigation into what might have caused it, alleging information was being withheld.
"When symptoms of a disease are ignored, the disease festers," she said in an email.
"Another (Malaysia Airlines) flight has gone down. Another 777... Far too much coincidence for the two situations to not be linked in some way." "How do we know a similar thing didn´t happen to MH370?" she said.
Flight MH370 vanished March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people aboard.
The Boeing 777-400 is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean, but an extensive search has turned up no sign of wreckage so far, leaving families frustrated and anguished.
