Dr M asks if it is safe to fly Boeing after what happened to MH370

KUALA LUMPUR, May 9 — Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad fired another broadside at Boeing today, by asking if it was still safe for the public to fly aircraft made by the manufacturer following the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 two months ago.

“If this can happen to MH370, a 777 Boeing, is it safe to fly in such planes? When will another plane disappear?” he wrote on his blog today even as both the authorities and experts remain stumped as to where the aircraft ended up.

“The assumption is that MH370 fell into the Indian Ocean. Can a plane that heavy, made of glass, aluminium, titanium and composites, plunge into the sea and not break up, leaving broken parts and oil slicks?

Even if the sea was calm a plane would break up. The engines too can break off and leave traces of oil etc. Whether the pilots were in control or not, when the fuel was exhausted the plane must drop.

“It cannot achieve a soft landing like the Hudson River case. It must drop into the sea violently. Even if the sea was calm, the plane must break up. But the suggestion is that the whole plane sank intact into the sea. Is this possible?” he asked.

This is the second time Dr Mahathir has taken aim at Boeing, after he demanded two weeks ago that Boeing take responsibility over the aircraft’s disappearance.

“Until now nothing has been found to indicate the breakup of the plane.

“Boeing has a lot to answer. Until the plane is found and the causes of the failure of communication equipment and the disappearance are fully explained, one must conclude that Boeing aircraft are dangerous to fly in,” Dr Mahathir said today.

His remarks come a day after almost 350 family members of passengers of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 demanded raw data be released for independent analysis, preferably to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), the non-profit research facility responsible for finding the remains of missing Air France Flight 447 in 2009, almost two years after it crashed into the Atlantic Ocean.

Amid questions about how the investigation has been conducted, the family members made the demand in an open letter sent to the leaders of Malaysia, China and Australia yesterday.

In the letter they questioned how authorities could be certain the Boeing 777 had crashed into the Indian Ocean after vanishing without a trace two months ago.

“Due to the lack of physical evidence that MH370 ended in the Southern Indian Ocean, the families are in urgent need for the conclusion, based on [British satellite communications firm] Inmarsat data analysis, that the aircraft’s flight ended in that ocean to be reconsidered to confirm its accuracy,” they wrote.

In the letter titled “A PLEA FROM THE FAMILIES OF MH370,” the relatives argued the data analysis “only indicates a probable southern flight path.”

They said the data did not “support a definitive conclusion that no other flight path was possible.”

Instead of governments leading the investigation, the families said all the data should be handed to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) which found the remains of missing Air France Flight 447 in 2009, almost two years after it crashed into the Atlantic Ocean.

With the air and surface search now halted, a new search phase costing around A$60 million (RM181 million) will begin after existing visual and sonar search data is analysed and a contractor is found to lease the sophisticated equipment needed, officials said after meeting in Canberra earlier this week.

Experts have narrowed the search area where the plane is presumed to have crashed to a large arc of the Indian Ocean about 1,600km (1,000 miles) northwest of the west Australian city of Perth.

Last week, Malaysia released its most comprehensive account yet of what happened to Flight MH370, detailing the route the plane probably took as it veered off course and the confusion that followed.

The officials have said the focus will be on 60,000 sq km (24,000 sq mile) of seabed in the Indian Ocean that could take a year to search.

US President Barack Obama had publicly promised to commit more assets, but government sources say the United States is keen to begin passing on the costs of providing the expensive sonar equipment the officials say they are trying to source.

The United States said over the weekend that it would only contribute its sophisticated Bluefin-21 underwater drone for one more month, placing pressure on Australia, China and Malaysia to find funding for the next phase of the search. A majority of the 239 people on board were Chinese nationals.

Beijing-bound MH370 disappeared after leaving Kuala Lumpur on March 8 with 239 people on board.