KUALA LUMPUR: The search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 that began in the South China Sea ten years ago had followed standard procedure following its final radio communication with Vietnamese airspace authorities.
This, said former Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) director-general Datuk Seri Azharuddin Abd Rahman, is part of standard search and investigation protocol where it begins from the last point of contact.
"When we were told that the aircraft was missing, the protocol of the search is you have to search where (the plane was) last seen on our radar screen and the last point of where the aircraft dropped off… I mean, where the image of the aircraft on screen dropped off was at IGARI or just after (the) IGARI waypoint.
"So the first point of the search, the first location of the search will be at where IGARI is. So we have to search the surface of the South China Sea.
"And we sent the Malaysian Malaysia Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) ship, which was the first ship to reach the area in the morning of the 8th and they didn't find anything. That's the area we looked at because we only heard about the turnback on the second day (March 9, 2014).
"So we have to look in the South China Sea first because that's the first indication of where we lost sight of the aircraft," Azharuddin told the New Straits Times' podcast show, Beyond the Headlines.
Upon the revelation that the aircraft had made a turnback shortly after reaching a waypoint known as IGARI in the South China Sea, radar data indicated that the transponder of MH370 was still transmitting data as it executed this turn, a crucial detail corroborated by multiple sources in the past.
Clarifying the radar systems involved, Azharuddin distinguished between civil and military radar.
Civil radar, he said, utilises transponders to relay detailed information about aircraft, including their identity, altitude, and speed.
In contrast, military radar merely detects aircraft presence without providing such detailed information.
He added that the decision not to intercept MH370 was attributed to its classification as a "friendly" aircraft, flying along established air corridors.
"You must understand that there are two radar systems that monitor our airspace. One is the civil radar system called the Secondary Surveillance Radar used by civil organisations and in Malaysia– it was DCA then, and now the Civil Aviation Authority (CAAM), of which they are responsible… obligated to manage the airspace that we are given.
"Yes, there's a code known as squawks– that is on military radar. But on the civil radar, it's not a code (or squawk). They use a transponder and once the radar (makes a) sweep, then it gains information from the aircraft's transponder and that information is then relayed to the air traffic controller of what aircraft it is, what airline that is, where it is flying, how high it is flying, what is the speed and where it's going. And there is lots of (other) information.
"In the case of military radar it's just a squawk. It's just a number."
Recalling what the late Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahman– who was the former Malaysia Airlines managing director and chief executive officer– had to say on "why the air force did not scramble its jets to investigate", Azharduddin had this to say:
"Yes, it was reported that the military had detected it and some people, like the late Tan Sri Abdul Aziz, asked why the military did not intercept– I think the Prime Minister, then Najib Razak, was also asked the same by CNN. His (Najib's) answer was that the aircraft was flying in the correct airway (corridor). So they treated the aircraft as a friendly aircraft.
Follow the discussion in the latest episode (episode 26) of Beyond the Headlines. Watch on NST Online's YouTube channel.