K-based International Business Times on Monday said the mystery surrounding the flight MH370 has deepened with the claims.
Daily Mirror reported on Monday that sister of one of the Chinese passengers onboard the missing flight rang his phone live on TV in Chinese capital Beijing.
“This (Monday) morning, around 11:40 [am], I called my older brother’s number twice, and I got the ringing tone,” said Bian Liangwei.
At 2pm, she called again on air and heard it ringing once more, according to the Mirror report.
“If I could get through, the police could locate the position, and there’s a chance he could still be alive,” she said.
The number was passed on to Malaysia Airlines and Chinese police.
The MH370 flight flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers onboard in the early hours of Saturday went missing.
According to Shanghai Daily, a man from Beijing also called his missing brother on the plane, and reported to the airlines that the phone connected three times and rang before appearing to hang up.
International Business Times said the brother had called the number in the presence of reporters before informing the airline.
The Straits Times reported that many of the family members told Malaysia Airlines Commercial Director Hugh Dunleavy that the commuters’ mobile phones were ringing but they were not picked up.
Dunleavy replied that the airliner was calling the mobile phones of the crew members as well, which were ringing, and that he had given the numbers to Chinese investigators.
Relatives of the passengers urged the authorities to search for the location of phones using the Global Positioning System.
However, at a press conference in Beijing, Malaysia Airlines spokesman Ignatius Ong said one of the numbers that had been passed on to the airline’s command office in Kuala Lumpur did not receive an answer.
“I myself have called the number five times while the airline’s command centre also called the number. We got no answering tone,” said Ong.
A phone company in Singapore that was investigating the number said it was out of credit, he said.
According to China.org.cn, 19 families have signed a joint statement saying that their family members’ cell phones connected, but the calls hung up.
The relatives asked Malaysia Airlines to reveal any information they might be hiding, seeking an explanation for the eerie phone connections.
Angry family members also threw water bottles at a Malaysia Airlines spokesman and threatened to protest in front of the Malaysian embassy in China if the airlines did not “disclose” the “truth”.
Source: bdnews24
