THE official report on Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 was released last week, but there was nothing conclusive for the families of the 239 passengers. It stated a theory of manual manipulation of controls and the turning round of the airplane. No proof or evidence was presented to support this assumption.
It seemed like a desperate attempt to close a case.
Conspiracy theories abound regarding that doomed Boeing 777 jet, which vanished on March 8, 2014. The MH370 disappearance sparked the biggest underwater search in aviation history.
Rather than shelving the search for MH370, a fresh angle of investigation is needed to solve the mystery that has lasted more than four years. I believe weightage should be given to the islanders of Maldives, who claim to have seen a giant airplane flying low in their area on the morning of March 8, 2014.
MH370 disappeared on the night the islanders spotted it. Perhaps the debris of MH370 found on the coasts of African countries came from the Maldives.
The government needs to convince a company on a “no find, no fee” term to conduct underwater searches around the Maldives.
Furthermore, countries located within the flight path of MH370 should jointly share the military radar data to map maximum areas of coverage. These areas should be searched with the most sophisticated machinery.
Officials responsible for not scrambling fighters to intercept the unknown airplane overflying Penang, later identified as MH370, should be convicted for criminal negligence.
In 2005, Helios Airways Flight HCY 522 met almost a similar fate when its cabin depressurised. Pilots were incapacitated due to hypoxia. The plane continued flying for almost two hours on autopilot.
Two Greek F-16s were scrambled. They couldn’t help, but they observed the cockpit and followed the trajectory of the airplane, which ultimately dived into a gorge in the mountains of Grammatiko, Greece, when its fuel ran out and engines died.
If jets had been scrambled in the case of MH370, surely we would have come to know early what happened to MH370.
Military officials wasted one week by “hiding” the information that military radar had plotted on the airplane for almost one hour after it disappeared from the secondary radar of air traffic controllers in Malaysia. Investigators wasted one crucial week in searching for the plane in the wrong area in the South China Sea.
Later, from the data of military radar, it was revealed that the plane had turned back and flown over Penang.
Air traffic controllers should be punished for delaying emergency procedures. The biggest error they committed was alerting the air force very late, but the air force worsened the situation by not scrambling jets to investigate the matter.
The authorities must not show leniency towards the negligent personnel.
The dear ones can’t be brought back, but taking disasters seriously may prevent another such mystery.
JAWAD AKRAM
Kuala Lumpur