Relatives searching for answers

Miaoli resident Chen Kun-yen (陳錕炎) looked upset as he rushed into the CKS Airport Hotel yesterday evening, trying to find out the fastest way to reach Penghu, near where China Airlines flight 611 went down yesterday.

"If you were relatives of the victims of the plane crash, you would be as impatient as we were, trying every means you can to reach the spot as soon as pos-sible," Chen said at the emergency center set up in the hotel in the wake of the crash.

Chen's 29-year-old nephew, Chen Kuo-liang (陳國亮), was on board the plane, which went mis-sing on its way to Hong Kong yesterday afternoon. But Chen Kun-yen is not alone.

Relatives of the passengers crowded into the transit hotel yesterday evening, grumbling about the handling of the tragedy by China Airlines, with many lapsing into a state of despair.

"You just can't get any of the information you want here. We might as well go home and watch TV," said Chen Pi-hsia (陳碧霞), the eldest daughter of passengers Chen Kao-shu (陳高旭) and Chen Shun-teng (陳順藤), as she wept and shouted by the entrance to the emergency center.

Chien Hui-min (簡惠敏), the eldest sister of 36-year-old passenger Chien Lien-chin (簡連錦), sat on a chair in the center, crying.

"He is the only one that hasn't gotten married in our family. The company just recently posted him in China," said Chien Hui-ling (簡慧玲), another elder sister of Chien Lien-chin.

"Have there been any survivors?" asked a woman as she collapsed in the center. "Just tell me if there is anyone that has survived."

Another woman passed out as she rushed into the center, and was then taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital.

Ibrahim El-hinn, a Jordanian who is married to a Taiwanese woman, said 11 family members from his wife's side were on the plane.

"They were originally going sightseeing in China for nine days," El-hinn told the Taipei Times.

Some relatives complained that the airline had failed to promptly tell them of the crash and that they went to the hotel only after seeing news of the disaster on TV.

Fu Chia-yung (傅家鏞), deputy general manager of China Airlines, faced tough questions from a roomful of relatives and friends of the victims of the crash as he tried to brief them last night.

A Buddhist center in Penghu has agreed to offer 300 rooms for relatives that reached Penghu on a plane that departed Taipei at 10:30 last night.

China Airlines also offered the telephone numbers of the emergency center in Penghu: (06) 9260575; (06) 9272557.