The tragic events that have befallen international carrier Malaysia Airlines have led to the resignation of nearly 200 crew members, an airline official announced Tuesday.
Some of the former cabin crew workers reported fearing for their safety, and others said they were pressured by their families to leave their jobs. From January to July, 186 crew members left the airline, Yahoo News reports.
The first tragedy to strike the airline this year was the disappearance of Flight MH370 on March 8. The plane was flying from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Beijing, China when it went missing. No debris or evidence of a crash site have been found to date, and there were 239 people on board.
On July 17, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine. The jet was travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was brought down by a surface-to-air missile near the Russia-Ukraine border. Both countries are deflecting responsibility for the attack. On board were 298 people from over a dozen countries.
The enormity of the tragedies, just four months apart, have been too much for some Malaysia Airlines employees to bear.
"Following the MH17 incident, there was a spike in crew resignations but the number has now decreased to acceptable and routinely expected levels," airline officials said in a statement
"Many cited 'family pressure' as the reason for their resignation due to the MH17 and MH370 tragedies."
The employees' union secretary general, Abdul Malek Ariff, said that the remaining staff are working 12-hour shifts because of staff shortages. About 8,000 people out of the carrier's 19,500-person workforce are covered by the union.
The carrier also reported that it is continuing to provide psychological services to its staff.
