The devastated families of Chinese passengers travelling on the missing Malaysia Airlines passenger jet reacted furiously to a statement by Malaysia's prime minister Saturday.
Prime minister Najib Razak confirmed on Saturday morning that "deliberate" actions were likely taken by someone on the missing passenger jet Flight MH370 and that the plane had its communications deliberately disabled.
Following the press conference, Malaysia Airlines Commercial Director Hugh Dunleavy, told frantic family members he was "not permitted to respond to any questions", because the situation was starting to looking like a "criminal investigation".
His response left the anxious relatives visibly frustrated, and they accused both the airline and Malaysia's government of hiding the truth from them, the Telegraph reported.
China is also said to be furious that it has taken a week for Malaysia to brief the public that flight MH370 was deliberately turned off course after its communication system was manually shut down.
China's Xinhua state news agency said that Malaysian PM Mr Najib's announcement today was "painfully belated".
“Due to the absence - or at least lack - of timely authoritative information, massive efforts have been squandered, and numerous rumours have been spawned, repeatedly racking the nerves of the awaiting families," it said.
It remains unclear as to whether Malaysia had indeed kept silent or if it was just corroborating the information it received before it went public like it said.
Some are speculating that Malaysia was concerned about revealing the fact that the airliner could have flown to Central Asia as it would in turn lead to speculation that the country's jihadists could be involved.