Conjecture, suspicion plague MH370 investigation one year on
Though search teams have scoured the desolate and ill-tempered waters of the Southern Indian Ocean since MH370’s disappearance, the mystery of the vanished Malaysia Airlines plane remains unsolved.
The inability to locate the Beijingbound flight MH370, which disappeared on March 8 only one hour after departing from Kuala Lumpur International Airport, has fuelled wild allegations of conspiracies and cover-ups.
Kelly Wen, 30, was among a group of 21 relatives of Chinese nationals that went to Kuala Lumpur last month to seek answers about the missing plane. She said suspicions proliferate because authorities have been less than candid in sharing information.
“There are many questions that have not been answered. That is why we are here [in Kuala Lumpur],” she said.
Ms Wen, whose husband was among the 239 people aboard the disappeared aircraft, said she wonders why the government was in a hurry to declare all of MH370’s passengers officially dead when the plane has not yet been found.
Jiang Hui, 41, whose 70-year-old mother was aboard, could not hide his suspicion that the search is being conducted in the wrong place.
“They have searched the area for months and nothing [has] happened,” he said, adding that Malaysia cannot evade its responsibility for discovering the truth of what happened to the plane.
“Declaring our loved ones dead will not give us closure,” he said. “The plane has to be found. We want to know what happened to the plane.”
Conspiracy theorists have been quick to take advantage of the situation.
US writer Jeff Wise argued in New York magazine in February that the aircraft was hijacked on the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and was being held on a Russian military base in Kazakhstan.
But — in common with many such theories — there is little explanation for why anyone would commit such a crime.
More conventional lines of investigation have focussed on the people aboard the plane, including the pilot.
A National Geographic documentary suggested the plane was deliberately diverted from its original route, pointing to pilot Captain Zaharie Shah Ahmad as the likely culprit.
But a Malaysian police source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said investigators did not find evidence linking the pilot to the plane’s disappearance.
“We have not found evidence that could pinpoint any of those people aboard the plane, including Captain Zaharie, as a probable suspect,” he said.
A colleague of Zaharie, who wanted only to be identified as Mohammad, expressed disappointment over the National Geographic documentary.
“Captain Zaharie is an upright man who would not do anything that would taint his profession and honour,” he said.
“I feel sad whenever I read stories that he is behind the disappearance of MH370.”
An aviation source said the biggest blunder the authorities made related to MH370 was the military’s failure to intercept the aircraft when it deviated from its course.
“The military tracked MH370 with their primary radar crossing over from the South China Sea to the Andaman Sea, but they kept mum about it,” he said.
“For days they knew that the search crews were looking in the wrong ocean, still they did not say anything,” he said.
But the source said he believes there was no ulterior motive on the part of the military in hiding their knowledge about the MH370 detour except that they were so embarrassed about their negligence and failure to intercept the wayward aircraft.
“It is common practice to intercept an unidentified airplane entering the airspace of a country,” he added.
“If it had been intercepted, we would know much more about the whereabouts and the causes of the air crash.”
Australian and Malaysian officials who are coordinating the ongoing search believe they are looking in the right place.
Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said all data available point to the present search area as the final destination of the plane.
“The information was precise. Each plane has its own signal ... that is why the search teams are confident that the plane headed to the southern Indian Ocean,” he said at a recent press briefing.
Jorg Schluter, a German professor at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, also believes that flight MH370 is within the search area.
“The little hard data we have are the satellite contacts. They show that the airplane was moving in a rather constant fashion away from the satellite,” he said. “Together with the estimated maximum and minimum flight speed, a corridor can be determined.”
Mr Schluter cautioned against speculating or casting aspersions on any individual or individuals.
“In the past, there have been quite a few accidents where people started pointing at the pilot, but ultimately, the pilots were exonerated,” he said.
“So far, every theory [about the disappearance of MH370] has its merits and weak points, but frankly, we don’t know enough to make any judgement,” he added.