PM John Key disgusted at journalist 'who told the wife' - reports
LATEST: New Zealand Prime Minister John Key is disgusted that a journalist was first to tell a New Zealand wife that her husband was aboard a plane missing.
The 38-year-old Paul Weeks had just left Danica Weeks and sons Lincoln, 3, and Jack, 11 months, in their adopted home of Perth while he headed to Mongolia to start work as a mechanical engineer.
WIFE AND CHILDREN MEANT THE WORLD TO MR WEEKS
Just before he boarded flight MH370, he sent a text to his wife saying she and their children meant the world to him.
A devastated Mrs Weeks managed to get only an hour's sleep at the weekend after discovering her husband's plane was missing.
"I'd hoped there would be news, that they would have something. We're just going through the motions now, minute by minute."
She was frustrated by the lack of detail from authorities. "We've been told nothing, just told nothing. You know as much as we do. [Malaysia Airlines] don't know. They have nothing to tell because they don't know. They have no idea - or if they do they're not telling us a thing."
"WHERES DADDY?" - Son of Paul Weeks
Older son Lincoln had already been asking for his dad, who had missed a planned Skype session.
"He has a map on his wall of where Daddy is - or was going to be - so for him it's, 'Where's Daddy?' He's wondering why I'm crying, why I'm upset, why hasn't Daddy Skyped."
Malaysia Airlines had offered to fly the family to Kuala Lumpur to wait for news but she refused.
"I can't go with two kids. The last thing I want to do is put my kids on a plane after losing their father.
JOHN KEY DISGUSTED WITH NAME HANDLING
Mr Key said this morning it was inappropriate that Mrs Weeks found out the plane was missing from local media as opposed to hearing first from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT).
"I was advised was that Interpol did try to ring Mrs Weeks, I think they either left a message or they certainly rang,'' he told TVNZ.
"She was out for a walk and didn't answer the phone, so what tragically happened was truly awful, but ultimately a journalist got there first.''
Due to the reality of modern-day journalism and the ferocious appetite from journalists to have the best and latest information, government authorities were almost left competing with the media, Mr Key said.
"One of the reasons we don't release names is because we want to control making sure that we - being the authorities - can speak to the next of kin first.
"These are horrendous situations. You're talking about somebody whose husband was on a plane that's missing, feared, at that point, dead.''
It would have been far more appropriate for the news to have come from officials, Mr Key said.