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29 March 2024

MH370: Mahathir holds Boeing responsible

A relative of Chinese passengers onboard the Malaysia Airlines MH370 speaks to media as he and others wait for Malaysia embassy staff to meet them outside the Malaysia embassy in Beijing, China Friday, April 25, 2014. About 50 relatives of Chinese passengers on the plane continued a sit-in protest outside the Malaysian Embassy after officials failed to show up to update them on the search.(AP)

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By AFP, Staff

Missing MH370 latest: Former Malaysia PM blames Boeing Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia’s former prime minister, is holding plane-maker Boeing responsible for the aircraft’s disappearance without a trace.

In a scathing commentary on his blog, the politician has squarely laid the blame on Boeing, insisting that the recent incident of bereaving relatives holding Malaysia Airlines employees hostage was misdirected.

“I am very upset over MAS employees being held hostage in Beijing by the relatives of the passengers of MH 370. I am upset because they are blaming the wrong people. The loss of the plane is due to the makers Boeing,” he wrote in his blog post dated April 25.

“How can Boeing produce a plane that is so easily disabled? Normally it is entirely possible for the crew, the pilots and co-pilots to communicate even with KLIA [Kuala Lumpur International Airport]. Maybe the captain did not want to. But surely the co-pilot would want to inform ground stations that the plane was not flying according to the scheduled route,” he wrote.

While Boeing has not commented on the issue so far citing that it is “under investigation,” official bodies have urged for more to be done by the industry collectively in order to avoid any repeat.

Tony Tyler, Director General and CEO of International Air Transport Association (Iata), said late last month that the world must never let another aircraft go missing in the way Malaysia Airlines’ flight MH370 went.

Tyler made the call in a keynote address at the opening of the Iata OPS Conference, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. “Speculation will not make flying any safer. We should not jump to any conclusions on probable cause before the investigation into MH370 closes. There are, however, at least two areas of process – aircraft tracking and passenger data – where there are clearly challenges that need to be overcome,” said Tyler.

Mahathir, on the other hand, even questioned if flight MH370 had actually crashed into the southern Indian Ocean. “When a plane crashes on land or sea there would be debris or oil slick. None has been found so far. Can it be that the plane remained intact on crashing and sank with no trace and no one launching the lifeboat doors as we are told all these aircrafts are equipped with?”

The former Malaysian PM said Boeing had a lot to answer for, and even said that he wouldn’t like to fly a Boeing plane until the aircraft manufacturer explains how the communications systems could fail completely or be disabled. “Boeing built this aircraft. Boeing must explain how all these means of tracking the plane can be disabled, can fail. Either Boeing technology is poor or it is not fail-safe. I would not like to fly in Boeing aircraft unless Boeing can explain how all its system can fail or be disabled,” he said.

Tyler, however, noted that the MH370 case has highlighted the need to improve the in-flight tracking of aircraft. “In a world where our every move seems to be tracked, there is disbelief both that an aircraft could simply disappear and that the flight data and cockpit voice recorders are so difficult to recover. Air France 447 brought similar issues to light a few years ago and some progress was made. But that must be accelerated. We cannot let another aircraft simply vanish,” said Tyler.

However, Tyler stressed that the aviation industry continues to offer one of the safest modes of modern transportation. “In 2013, there were over 29 million flights operated on Western-built jet aircraft, with 12 hull losses. That is one accident for every 2.4 million flights and a 14.6 per cent improvement on the five-year industry average. Accidents are rare, but the current search for MH370 is a reminder that we can never be complacent on safety. It may well a long time before we know exactly what happened on that flight. But it is already clear that we must never let another aircraft go missing in this way. And it is equally clear that governments must make better use of the passenger data that they mandate airlines to provide,” said Tyler.

Mahathir Mohamad insisted in his blog that the technology in use today should have been enough to track down a large aircraft. “Remote control technology is now very sophisticated and powerful. Is it true that Boeing has installed remote control equipment on the aircraft to prevent hijacking? If it did why did it not direct the aircraft to land safely? Is it possible for third parties to take control of the aircraft remotely?”

Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia’s longest serving premier, also accused the US plane maker for just keeping quiet. “Boeing must answer all these questions. Boeing must demonstrate possible ways for the communications system to be disabled. Boeing must accept responsibility for building an aircraft that can disappear in mid-air so completely,” he maintained while giving a clean chit to Malaysian Airlines (MAS).

“MAS is not at fault, lax security or not. MAS flew a plane fully expecting it to perform the task. But the plane has somehow behaved differently. Who is responsible? Not MAS but certainly the makers of the plane – Boeing Aircraft Corporation,” Mohamad concluded.