An Australian aviation writer says governments should be telling the Malaysian authorities they're not competent to run the investigation into the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
Malaysia's acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, centre and Foreign Minister Anifah Aman, right. Photo: AFP
The plane with 239 people on board vanished about an hour after it took off from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing early on 8 March. An unprecedented search has failed to find any trace of the Boeing 777, which investigators believe was diverted by someone with deep knowledge of the plane and commercial navigation.
Geoffrey Thomas told Radio New Zealand's Morning Report programme on Wednesday that Malaysia's military and its department of civil aviation had failed to reveal key information promptly.
Mr Thomas said millions of dollars had been wasted in searching the wrong area and in his view this was one of the most botched searches in modern aviation history.
The search for the plane now encompasses an area slightly larger than the entire land mass of Australia.
Australia's Maritime Safety Authority says the southern part of the search alone covers 600,000 square kilometres of ocean.
Australia is leading the southern search in an area 3000km south-west of Perth in Western Australia.
The authority says the search zone has been plotted using data based on the last satellite relay signals sent by the plane.
Ships and aircraft from Australia, New Zealand and the United States are taking part in the search, which represents a narrowing down of the previous Indian Ocean search area.
NZ Orion has limited search time
Air Vice-Marshal Kevin Short, Commander Joint Forces New Zealand. Photo: RNZ / Charlotte Gendall
The commander of New Zealand's joint forces says the search area for the missing plane is so remote, the New Zealand Air Force Orion, now based in Western Australia, will be able to search for only two hours per flight.
Air Vice-Marshal Kevin Short told Radio New Zealand's Morning Report programme the Orion would conduct its first major search on Wednesday moving north towards Indonesia from the southernmost point of the search field.
He said the search zone was 2500 kms from Perth so the Orion would only be able to stay in the area for two or three hours after its long transit.
A woman writes on a banner carrying messages for the passengers on missing flight MH370 at Kuala Lumpur Airport. Photo: AFP
