KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 1 — US aircraft manufacturer Boeing appears unwilling to use available technology to help locate missing planes even though it could make the task “ easier and faster”, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has claimed.

In a blog posting this morning, the former prime minister cited an October news report by the specialist magazine Flight International which focused on an on-going competitive rift between Boeing and French rival Airbus.

“It seems that while Airbus is ready to move forward with a deployable flight data and voice recorder system for commercial aircraft, Boeing which has installed deployable recorders on at least three military aircraft fleets, disagrees that the technology is appropriate or safe for commercial transport,” Mahathir wrote.

According to Malaysia’s longest-serving prime minister, Airbus’ concept involves deploying one of the two sets of flight data and cockpit voice recorders in the event of a mid-air collision or impact with the ground, which also includes a locator beacon — designed to float if the crash occurs in water.

“Just imagine if this recorder and beacon is installed on the Indonesia AirAsia aircraft or MH370, we would not have to search the oceans for the planes.

“I cannot understand why Boeing is against it. Says the article, If either the Malaysian or the French airlines (which crashed in 2009) were equipped with a deployable flight recorder, the narrative of the search would likely be different’,” said Dr Mahathir, pointing out that the article was written before the loss of Indonesia AirAsia flight QZ8501.

He also quoted a December 2006 article in FlightGlobal.com as saying that Boeing had received a US patent for a system that allows seizure of an aircraft by remote control as a means to prevent terrorist hijacking.

“Boeing had made no comment on its powerful capability. And MH370 has not been found till now. And now Boeing seems to be unwilling to make finding lost aircraft easier and faster, possibly saving lives as well. Why??

“The mystery deepens,” Dr Mahathir said.

Flight QZ8501, which carried 162 people on board including a Malaysian passenger identified as 56-year-old Sii Chung Huei from Sarawak, disappeared early Sunday morning during stormy weather en route to Singapore from Surabaya in Indonesia.

AirAsia Group CEO Tan Sri Tony Fernandes was reported as saying that bad weather could have been a factor in the plane crash, though at least one expert has claimed that it could take up to a year to determine how the accident happened.

Malaysia’s national carrier lost two aircraft last year, the first, MH370 has disappeared without a trace in March while the second, MH17, was shot down over Ukraine. All on board both flights have been presumed dead.