In a bid to pacify the angry relatives of the missing flight's 153 Chinese passengers, Malaysian Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein has said that Chinese families should understand that the Malaysians also lost their loved ones.

The angry relatives of the Chinese passengers aboard the missing Malaysia Airlines plane that disappeared more than two weeks ago en route Beijing have been accusing the Malaysian government  for the agony they have been suffering. On Tuesday, the angry relatives staged a protest in front of the Malaysian embassy in Beijing, and accused the Malaysian government of murdering their relatives.

While some of the relatives have accused the Malaysian government of acting too slow in handling the issue, many others have accused it of knowingly withholding key information about the missing flight.

Reacting to the accusations,   Mr. Hishammuddin said, "Chinese families . must also understand. We in Malaysia also lost our loved ones. There are so many other nations who lost loved ones."

The ill-fated flight had taken off from Kuala Lumpur at 12:41 a. m. on March 8. As per schedule, it had to reach Beijing at 6:30 a. m. on the same day, but it disappeared at around 1:30 a. m. There were 239 people aboard, two-thirds of which were Chinese.

Eleven planes and five ships are scouring the Indian Ocean in search of supposed debris from the plane; but the multi-national search has so far remained unsuccessful.