Co-workers traumatised, relatives stage walkout

Operations of at least three multinational companies with offices in Hong Kong have been affected after the crash of the Malaysia Airlines plane.

Some senior executives in these firms have come under severe stress after they learnt that their colleagues had been on the ill-fated flight, Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post reported.

Some have developed a fear of flying and one fell ill when setting off on a business trip, the report said.

The Post Crisis Counselling Network had attended to more than 100 employees from the companies, including those who suffered emotional collapse and were unable to work or travel after flight MH370 went missing.

COULDN'T WORK

"Some of these senior executives collapsed emotionally," the Hong Kong newspaper quoted the network's executive director Timothy To Wing Ching as saying. "They couldn't work and the company's operations are affected."

Meanwhile, frustrated family members of the Chinese passengers walked out of a briefing by Malaysian officials yesterday. It left the panel to stare at ranks of empty chairs while a single relatives' representative berated them, AFP reported.

With the search on its 20th day, hundreds of family members of the 153 Chinese passengers stood up about an hour into a briefing at Beijing's Lido Hotel and calmly filed out of the room.

The representative, who gave only his surname, Jiang, took the microphone as soon as officials opened the floor for questions. He turned to the assembled relatives and asked them whether they were satisfied with what they have heard from officials so far.

"No!" the family members responded in unison. They then walked out.