Over 300 volunteers translating MH370 report into Chinese

(ECNS) -- More than 300 netizens have taken it in turns to translate the English interim report on the missing plane MH370 into Chinese after it was released by the Malaysian government on March 8, the Shanghai Morning Post reports on Wednesday.

A year after the mysterious disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, the local government released a 584-page, terminology-rich English interim report, which the families of its 154 Chinese passengers are unable to comprehend.

To enable them to read and understand the report, five students from the Nanjing campus of the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) volunteered to translate the document into Chinese, but had to seek professional help online due to its many technical aviation terms.

The appeal for help spread quickly via Weibo and Wechat, two popular online social platforms in China, resulting in more than 300 netizens across the world helping with the translation.

The Chinese version of the report is set to be published this weekend after being proofread.

A participant of the translation team named Jerry, who is studying Air Traffic Control at Massey University in New Zealand as an exchange student, said that although most passengers were Chinese, no Chinese report has been released.

"We hope that our initiative to translate this report into Chinese will induce the Malaysian government to release an official Chinese report on the MH370," added Tony, one of the five NYIT students who initiated the translation.