In a sign of the huge strain in hunting for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein has expressed frustration at the failure of international agencies, and the makers of the missing Boeing 777 and its engines, to explain what went wrong.
The acting Transport Minister suggested to Chinese television channel CCTV that it was unfair for Malaysia Airlines to be singled out for criticism in the way they communicated to the families of the missing 227 passengers and 12 crew.
"MAS will have to do a better job in engaging those families.
"But just putting MAS on the witness stand [is not enough] - we also need to bear in mind what is the role and the responsibility of Rolls Royce, of Boeing, of all these expert agencies. Where is their voice?," Hishammuddin said in an interview carried by CCTV yesterday.
The video clip (see below) of the interview was uploaded to CCTV's YouTube video sharing account yesterday.
Flight MH370 was carrying 239 people from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing early March 8 when it lost contact with air traffic control within an hour of its six-hour flight. It has not been found yet.
Hishammuddin also questioned why the airline sent out a text message in English last week stating there were no survivors but said other agencies will also have to provide answers to the plane's mysterious disappearance.
"It is easy to target people. I'm not defending MAS. They will have to answer about the SMS and how they translate things and how they engage with the families.
"But at the same time I want to see the international agencies also stand out there, because we paid millions of dollars to buy the aeroplanes, fly the engines, pay for their expertise. And now those technology is being questioned by the world," he said in the interview.
Both Boeing and Rolls-Royce, which supplied the engines for the twin-jet, have not made any public statements about the lost aircraft although it is understood that they are cooperating with US air safety investigators.
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that American officials and others said Boeing was upset that it took about three hours – much longer than would be typical – for Malaysian authorities to inform company representatives the jet hadn't been heard from.
Boeing's team remains "quite frustrated and doesn't trust the process", according to one person familiar with the company's views.
Hishammuddin also said in the CCTV interview that Malaysia was still looking at a criminal motive for the plane's disappearance due to either terrorism, hijacking, or a crew member with a personal or psychological problem.
He said in a statement today that both the international investigations team and Malaysia were still in agreement that MH370's movements were consistent with deliberate action by someone aboard.
"Up until the point at which it left military primary radar coverage, MH370's movement were consistent with deliberate action by someone on the plane," the minister said. – April 1, 2014.
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