Why was first 4 hours of MH370 kept secret?

MH370 Over seven months after the loss of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, the cause of the disaster remains a mystery and government officials have pointed to its black box as the only way to uncover the truth.

But a leading aviation expert has pointed out that the Malaysian government is in possession of more information which thus far it has refused to release.

Des Ross, a pilot and air traffic management specialist with 35 years experience, wrote in Australia-based Aviation Business that there are several recordings that would shed light on the first four hours of Flight MH370 going missing.

While the Malaysian government has released the recording between the pilot and air traffic control (ATC) which do not appear to be out of the ordinary, more vital is the communication recording between the military and civil ATC on their response to the missing aircraft.

"There is another recording of the communications between the military air defence officer who was tracking the 'unknown' aircraft and anyone else he talked to.

"There would definitely be a recording of any conversation between him and the civil air traffic controller in the KL control centre, if they did in fact talk to each other.  If they did not talk to each other in these circumstances I would call it criminal negligence.

"All telephone conversations into and out of the military centre and the civil ATC centre are recorded also.

“ So, any conversations between Malaysian Airlines and the ATC centre would be recorded and available," he said.

Ross added that the government owed the people these information as Australian taxpayers are now being made to foot a costly search for the missing aircraft in the Indian Ocean.

Beijing bound Flight MH370 which departed from Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 8 was carrying 239 passengers and 12 crew members when it lost contact with ATC over the South China Sea at 1.20am.

Military radar detected the aircraft at 2.15am but took no apparent action and its loss was only reported by Malaysia Airlines (MAS) at 7.24am, raising questions about what happened during the time gap.

Ross said had the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) acted immediately, investigators would not be left wondering where is the final resting place of the doomed plane and therefore the military communications recording was needed to learn what happened.

"We have also been told that the military determined that it was a civil aircraft and, therefore, of no concern to them.

"Frankly, that is absolute rubbish either way you look at it," he said, adding that every country maintains surveillance of its airspace.

Under international norms, he said the RMAF would have contacted the civil ATC to help identify the unkown aircraft or vice versa.

If radio contact cannot be established, the RMAF would have scrambled jets to follow it.

He also rubbished Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein's remarks who had questioned if scrambling jets would mean shooting down Flight MH370, stating that the purpose was only to identify the aircraft.

"If they had done so, we would not be looking for the aircraft now, the families would know what had happened and millions of dollars could have been saved," he said.

The ongoing search for the wreckage of Flight MH370 in the Indian Ocean is estimated to cost some RM173 million, borne by both Australia and Malaysia.

Source: Mkini