Miaoli resident Chen Kun-yen (
"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.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
Chen's 29-year-old nephew, Chen Kuo-liang (
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 (
Chien Hui-min (
"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 (
"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 (
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.
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