Asia's long history of carnage in the air

[unhappycamper]

http://atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/SEA-01-120314.html



Asia's long history of carnage in the air
By John McBeth
Mar 12, '14

JAKARTA - The search for the missing Malaysia Airlines' Boeing 777-200 has now become almost as bizarre as the disappearance of the aircraft itself with authorities now saying it may not only have reversed course, but flew 500 kilometers back across the Malaysian peninsula.

In a stunning turn of events, the Malaysian Air Force claimed Flight 370, carrying 239 passengers and crew, was last detected on radar crossing the northern end of the Malacca Strait at 2.40 am, more than an hour after it lost contact over the South China Sea.

But with the Indonesians and civilian radar operators unable to confirm the new radar track and air force chief Rodzali Daud saying he had been misquoted, it still left open the question why the pilot could not send a distress signal or otherwise communicate he was in trouble?

It was the air force which raised the possibility of a turn-back in the first place. That was later given fresh impetus by the decision to switch part of the international search effort from the South China Sea to the western coast of Malaysia and the peninsular itself.