By Lam Choong Wah, REFSA Senior Fellow
Frankly, I nearly fell off my chair when reading the news quoting Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein saying “If you want to apportion blame, you have to apportion blame to nearly the whole world” when asked about the MH370 tragedy in a press conference recently.
Being the Defence Minister, who is also one of the highest ranking administrators in the country, he should show us how to behave and administer the Defence Ministry responsibly.
But, he often lets us down whenever he is confronted with questions related to MH370.
Instead of blaming the whole world, it would be better to provide more convincing answers to address the still unanswered questions of the missing flight.
The air force and Hishammuddin keep on insisting that MH370 was not intercepted because it was not identified as a hostile target.
But, how did they conclude that the blips that appeared on the military’s primary radar were not indicative of a hostile target? What were the criteria used by them to reach such a conclusion?
Without relying on the “secretive” Malaysian intercept policy, which it shouldn’t be, one can refer to two other sources to shed some light on identifying a hostile target.
According to United States’ FAA regulations, an aircraft will be identified as a threat and treated as an enemy aircraft, potentially leading to the interception by fighter aircraft if it flies in or through the boundary without prior filing in of its flight plan, an operational radar transponder and maintaining two – way radio contact.
The point was reinforced by the former Malaysian Air Force Chief General Suleiman Mahmud (rtd) that the hostility of aircraft was determined by its transponder’s data.
In the case of MH370, the aircraft flew through the peninsula under conditions where the on-board transponder and radio were switched off due to reasons unknown.
These certainly are grounds for identifying MH370 as a hostile subject, according to American standards.
Asking the reporters whether the air force should have shot MH370 down if it were intercepted at the press conference merely portrays his irresponsibility when attempting to dodge tough questions.
There is no need for us to experience another 911 tragedy to learn essential preventive and mitigating measures from it. Even a primary school pupil would know how to obtain information regarding hostile aircraft identification from the Internet.
The question is not whether we are in “war mode”, it is whether or not you abide by the established standards.
Hishammuddin said Malaysia did better than the Air France flight 447 incident and that Air France only activated search and rescue operations (SAR) after seven hours of loss of communication, while MAS triggered SAR only after four hours.
But again, are we really doing better? There are several facts that need to be made clear before we make a comparison.
Flight AF447 took off from Brazil on May 31, 2009 and vanished when crossing the Atlantic Ocean at 2.14am, June 1, 2009.
The flight, until the moment it vanished, was under the Brazilian Air Traffic Controller’s jurisdiction before passing the flight control to Dakar ATC, Senegal.
Scrutinising Brazilian responses and reactions are far more crucial than Air France itself.
Comparing the timelines of both events, Brazil took three hours, 48 minutes to initiate SAR, while Malaysia took four hours and 11 minutes.
In short, Malaysia still took more time than Brazil. Did Hishammuddin realise this fact?
AF447 flew at an area which is out of Brazilian radar coverage and HF was the only means of communication when the incident took place. In contrast, MH370 was still within Malaysia’s radar coverage. Why did Malaysia lose MH370 when Malaysia had better radar oversight in this case?
It is true that Air France set up a crisis group and the ALERFA-INCERFA-DETRESFA messages were sent only after nearly seven hours of losing communication with AF447.
ICAO’s Annex 11 Document 5.2.1 says that the air traffic controller should notify the rescue coordination center and issue a ALERFA-INCERFA-DETRESFA messages immediately when no communication is received from an aircraft.
Nonetheless, when were MAS’s INCERFA, ALERFA and DETRESFA messages sent? Please show us the timeline.
One can see that the more answers Hishammuddin gives, the more questions arise. Uttering more silly remarks may work in Malaysia, which was ranked 147 out of 180 countries in the 2014 World Press Freedom Index, but it won’t work when facing the outspoken foreign media and a more open civil society.
