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Malaysia Airlines Flight 370: Passenger families’ anger boils over

Investigators discovered files were deleted from a flight simulator taken from the pilot's home
Search for Flight 370: Files deleted from pilot's flight simulator 03:37

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Anger is boiling over for the families of the 239 people who went missing on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, as the hunt for the Boeing 777 enters its 12th day.

Families of the missing burst into an auditorium in Kuala Lumpur Wednesday morning just before it was to be used for a press briefing, reports CBS News correspondent Seth Doane.

These press briefings had been routine -- a back and forth with authorities, with the press trying to get what little information they can - but this one was anything but normal.

A Chinese woman -- apparently the relative of a passenger -- was dragged by security, kicking and screaming from the press briefing room.

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A Chinese relative of passengers aboard a missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 cries as she speaks to journalists at a hotel in Sepang, Malaysia, Wednesday, March 19, 2014. AP Photo

Just before, those relatives held up a banner that accused the Malaysian government of "withholding information"

The acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein addressed the chaos at the briefing: "One of our main priorities is how to manage emotions and how to appease the families."

On Tuesday, the Thai military acknowledged that they'd possibly picked up Flight 370 on military radar, turning west, just eight minutes after it lost contact with air traffic controllers.

Flight 370's mid-air mystery raises questions about transponders 02:19

Sources tell CBS News there's evidence Flight 370's apparent turn west was programmed into its cockpit navigation system after the flight took off.

It's still unclear why it was done or who was at the controls

Malaysian authorities also said Wednesday data had been deleted back in February from the flight simulator confiscated during the search of the pilot's house.

"Some data has been deleted from the simulator and forensic work to retrieve this data is ongoing," Hussein said.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370: Assessing the role of possible terrorism 02:15

Sources tell CBS News that an initial review of the pilot and co-pilot's seized personal computers and emails revealed no evidence of any hijacking plans or plot.

The pace of the investigation is prompting criticism from within. Sivarasa Rasiah, a member of the Malaysian parliament, said: "The plane appeared as a blip on our military radar -- a few hours after it disappeared -- and there is no real explanation as to what our response was -- or lack of response was and why? We're not getting any answers."

As part of one of Malaysia's opposition parties, he's criticized the government for not accepting help from the U.S. and others sooner.

"I think if that had happened we might not have had the fiasco of waiting a week out in the South China Sea -- looking in a place where we shouldn't have been looking in the first place," Rasiah said.

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