Malaysia is once again sending relatives of those lost on MH370 on a ghastly emotional roller coaster ride with a stream of contradictory statements that have left many shattered.
Last week, Malaysia’s new Transport Minister Anthony Loke told the ABC’s South-East Asia correspondent Adam Harvey that after a four-year search failed, it was time to look for “closure” only to be contradicted by Malaysia’s prime minister-in-waiting, Anwar Ibrahim, a day later who told The Australian that he was not ruling out a new search after a full review of the disappearance of the Boeing 777.
Last week Danica Weeks, who lost her husband Paul, that “it was not the time for closure it was time for the truth.”
Sadly, there is saying in the airline industry that truth is the first casualty of any air crash, and so it would seem for Flight MH370 which disappeared on March 8, 2014.
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From the outset, Malaysia’s handling of the investigation has been botched, and that apparent reluctance to be more open is tarnishing the reputation of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau which has led the international team looking for MH370.
It must be remembered that the ATSB’s role is search and recovery, not the investigation that under international law is the sole responsibility of Malaysia.
In January 2017, US air safety expert and former National Transport Safety Bureau chairman Mark Rosenker commented that the cooperation from Malaysian authorities in the early stages of the search for MH370 was a critical setback.
“In the beginning it was horrific. “I can’t think of a worse textbook study on how not to do a cooperative effort with a global accident situation, it was terrible,” said Mr Rosenker.
“They didn’t understand the implications of what had happened here and what would be necessary to do a co-operative search and rescue and recovery effort.”
Malaysia’s new government must step up to its international responsibilities and aggressively review all the data and plan a new search for the next southern summer.
A great start would be to offer a reward for debris and quickly collect it all as the tiniest piece may possibly reveal the best clue yet to what happened 1542 days ago.
The relatives and the global media will not rest until MH370 is found as it is inconceivable that the world will walk away from this disaster.
The Titanic was found, the Bismarck was found, the Hood was found and HMAS Sydney was found.
So will MH370.
