A reprise of most key events of 8 March – I think it was a shame that the Four Corners interviewer Caro Meldrum-Hanna seemed to be thrown off her course by Malaysia’s Minister of Defence, Hishammuddin Hussein heatedly asking her – “do you want me to shoot it down” – or words to that effect.
Caro Meldrum-Hanna could have pointed out that there was a range of options for fighter aircraft to check on unidentified aircraft – and in fact often perform this role around various nations airspace.
They would use their radar to find the rogue airliner and make visual contact – call them on radio – fly in front of the airliners cockpit – waggle wings – make hand signals and indications to follow me – if all that failed to get cooperation then a few tracer rounds arcing away in view of the cockpit might concentrate the pilots mind.
Once contact had been made relays of jets could have escorted MH370 – at least the world would have known where it went.
In their timeline of events Four Corners missed at least a couple of relevant events – just before MH370 vanishing off radar – a Boeing 777 captain, who asked to not be named, said he was flying 30 minutes ahead of the missing aircraft, and was asked to use his plane’s emergency frequency to contact MH370 by Vietnamese air traffic control officials who wanted to establish its location.
And then there was the story that surfaced after ten days – Thai Air Force now say they detected an aircraft on radar 8 March 2014 that may have been MH370 –
Looking forward to Four Corners posting their transcript.
The upshot re 8 March events was that Malaysia was less than alert – that is clear.
To have a rogue airliner fly near to Butterworth airbase without fighter pilots slumber being disturbed is a bit hard to take I suppose.
Fascination segment of the Four Corners transcript –
Transcript
CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: One week later, at the Ministry of Defence, Minister Hishammuddin agreed to an interview with Four Corners.
To answer questions about what the military did and didn’t do.
For the first time, confirming that civil aviation did ring the military that morning.
(to Hishammudin Hussein)
Did DCA contact the military…
HISHAMMUDIN HUSSEIN: Yes they did.
CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: What time?
HISHAMMUDIN HUSSEIN: You have to ask the DCA and it will come out, the details, I think this, the dates, because I do not want to be trapped by, from my experience in the last few weeks, by dates, by numbers, by names, by rank.
CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Even though civil aviation had rung the military – possibly as early as 2am- alerting officers on duty to look out for a lost, unidentified commercial plane, the military allowed MH370 to glide out to sea.
Minister Hishammuddin told Four Corners that MH370 was tracked by the military in real time, but inexplicably, dismissed as not hostile by the officer on duty.
The military also decided not to send up one of its planes to investigate.
(to Hishammudin Hussein)
But why not send the jets up if you, you have conceded earlier that you knew very early in the morning the plane was missing, there was four and a half hours time in which to respond…
HISHAMMUDIN HUSSEIN: It was not hostile; it was commercial; it was from our airspace; we’re not at war with anybody. Even if we sent them up, are you going to say that we’re going to shoot it down?
CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Well you said that, not me…
HISHAMMUDIN HUSSEIN: No, I’m asking you.
CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: I could not possibly answer that…
HISHAMMUDIN HUSSEIN: If you’re not going to shoot it down, what’s the point of sending it up?
CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: To see where it’s going.
HISHAMMUDIN HUSSEIN: Well to see where it going, you need a fighter for that? If you’re talking about military procedures, and if I did shoot it down, you’d be the first to say, how can you shoot down a commercial airline with twent- 14 nationals, half of them Chinese, I’d be in a worse position probably.
CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Why shoot it down though if it’s not hostile?
HISHAMMUDIN HUSSEIN: Well the Americans would.
CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: If the military didn’t dismiss the plane as irrelevant, if the officers on duty took action, the Government would have avoided another costly mistake: spending a week searching the wrong area: the South China Sea.
C M-D showing a bit too much wisdom in hindsight for my taste.
I’ve spent a air amount of time in Malaysia, and they have a ‘kick the buck upstairs’ mentality. It doesn’t surprise me no aircraft was launched to investigate.
The theory that best explains what we know is a mid-air collision likely with a drone. This explains 2 otherwise unexplained aspects. The falling ball of fire the Kiwi saw (the drone), and the slick that wasn’t aviation fuel; many drones are diesel or petrol powered. Apoxia explains the rest.
Everyone is watching everyone else in the South China Sea. And Indonesia has acquired some Israeli drones thru back channels, without training.
Maybe the interviewer would have got more answers (and more precise ones) if she had informed herself better before the interview. The Defense Minister was-according to an earlier article from March-informed at 10.30 by the military. Much too late for him anyway to make any decision of scrambling jets.The one who was in charge would be the one she had to ask.Its obvious the minister didnt want to expose any of his military people and it should not be expected either.
Thanks for the interview transcript. I couldn’t quickly find a suitable reference to it this morning (not enough coffee I suppose). Hishammudin Hussein’s comments on the fighters form and Americans form a part of the back drop to my latest blog on MH370 Flight Reconstruction (Part 8) 370skeptic.wordpress.com/2014/05/25/mh370-flight-reconstruction-part-8/ for anyone interested in my musings.
Agree the interviewer could have done more. An unidentified airliner is quite capable of being crashed into a valuable asset. And if Air Force pilots had intercepted – then at least the authorities have the aircraft ID’d – even if the MH370 pilot remained unresponsive – relays of jets could have escorted in the hope of a mind change. At least all would have a vastly better idea where the flight went – there would have been time to task a longer range plane to follow. The hijacker who planned all this must have expected to see the Air Force out his window at some point – perhaps he was puzzled why not as he turned to starboard after Penang. Odd that he choose a silent and secret end.
And Art Mira – I read your blog post – but doubt that fighter missions from DG that identified MH370 could be bottled up top secret for so long. Interesting reconstruction – thanks.
Thanks wazsah. As for DG I was a bit taken aback by info that the base is now just not strategically important for the military, but actually a CIA and Special ops controlled and operated site. Seal teams, AWAC planes, floating monitor stations (ships) etc. are one thing, but when it starts getting to the covert ops, and higher levels of military and government intelligence units I know those folks play a very nasty game of hard ball these days that has very little to do with what even Obama or anyone on the US intelligence oversight committee et al may or may not like – and those folks are not the type that EVER tell tales out of school.
I notice that very little has appeared recently in the media about transforming Cocos-Keeling Islands into another version of DG. The problem with key control centers being located in locations like, aside from basic supply logistics, is that while it’s pretty easy to keep a lid on prying eyes one well placed strike can severely cripple it.
Regardless if it started as a badly thought out middle age crazy scheme that went horribly wrong or full blown terrorist activity the end result has serious political and diplomatic dangers that make not a cover up conspiracy, but one of those “you really don’t want to know”/”no constructive purpose is served by public knowledge” situations.