British deep sea search company Ocean Infinity has lost patience with the Malaysian government and has started a new search for MH370 without a ‘no find no fee’ contract in place. In an extraordinary development, on 13 February, Lieutenant Colonel Muhammad Amir bin Abdullah of Malaysia’s Ministry of Transport, said that the contract with Ocean Infinity was still under review by government lawyers. This is despite the Malaysian government having accepted Ocean Infinity’s new evidence concerning the location of the wreckage last May, and having given in principle approval to a new search in December. With time running short before the seas become too inhospitable, Ocean Infinity set out for the southern Indian Ocean last week, reaching the search zone on Sunday night and commencing its search on Monday (AWST).
Almost eleven years have passed since the disappearance of MH370 and in that time the Malaysian government has been anything but proactive in its efforts to find the wreckage. The opinion of many is that the Malaysian government should be pleading with anyone, from deep sea search companies to fishing trawlers, to go out searching, and offering a big reward. Instead, it has been dithering, delaying, and placing one obstacle after another in front of Ocean Infinity.
Following the statement from Muhammad Amir bin Abdullah, K.S. Narendran, who lost his wife on the flight, accused the Malaysian government of ‘bad faith, deceit and abuse of trust’. For Geoffrey Thomas of Daily Airline News, ‘The performance of the Malaysian government is quite frankly a disgrace… It is clear that there are people in the Malaysian government who do not want this aircraft found’, whilst UK aerospace engineer Richard Godfrey, one of the most respected figures in MH370 investigations, finds it ‘amazing that Malaysia haven’t signed a contract and appear to still be sitting on their hands’.
But Malaysia’s conduct is all this and more. After the disappearance in 2014, the Malaysian government came under suspicion for its bungling of the opening days, with statements made, withdrawn then reasserted, and with its four-day delay in revealing the military radar data that showed that the plane had flown back across the Malaysian Peninsula. Malaysia was given the benefit of the doubt, with its poor communications ascribed to ‘cultural issues’, but the Malaysian government can now hardly be doing more to convince the world that that concession should never have been afforded. Any pretence that it has nothing to hide seems to have been abandoned.
The reason for the ongoing delay, the Lieutenant Colonel said, is that the contract is still being reviewed for its ‘financial aspects… and several other critical factors’. Richard Godfrey and Geoffrey Thomas suspect that it is those other factors that are the sticking point. Under the law of the sea, Ocean Infinity cannot disturb or salvage the wreckage. It can only photograph and film. It is speculated that Malaysia wants control of that imagery, which could include the cockpit, with evidence of who was flying the plane, and the cargo.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday this week, with Ocean Infinity’s search into its second day, Malaysia’s Transport Minister, Anthony Loke, came forward with a statement of tepid support for the new search, describing it as ‘a positive development for the next of kin, who have been anxiously awaiting the resumption of search efforts’. Still, however, the contract has not been signed and it is clear now that the search will be better off without it. Nor would the absence of a contract be of detriment to Ocean Infinity. It would not receive the fee of US $70m from Malaysia but the company would be more than amply rewarded with honours and recognition if it was to find MH370.
Malaysia is not the only government whose conduct in relation to MH370 has raised eyebrows. Another is the government of China. In terms of route, cargo and lives lost, no country was more invested in MH370 than China, yet the CCP has never initiated an inquiry of its own and has been reluctant to support other investigations. Even with the developments of recent days, rather than expressing any gratitude to Ocean Infinity, which is working to bring closure mostly to Chinese families, the CCP has maintained its silence.
If Malaysia and China have colluded in a cover-up with MH370, it would not be the first time they have done so in a commercial airline incident. As reported in the New York Times on 21 July 2014, in 2000 a Malaysian Airlines flight on the same route in the opposite direction – Beijing to Kuala Lumpur – was carrying canisters of a Chinese shipment believed to have been chemicals that were a precursor to nerve gas. The canisters, which were destined ultimately for Iran, broke open, forcing an emergency landing and evacuation in Kuala Lumpur, where the Malaysian government dug a huge hole near the tarmac and buried the plane in its entirety.
Other theories for what might have happened to MH370 implicate other governments. One gaining prominence in recent months is by American investigator, Ashton Forbes, who is building a case that MH370 fell prey to sixth-generation warfare on the part of the US government as it sought to prevent the possibility of twenty passengers on the plane, who were employees of the US electronic weaponry company Freescale Semiconductor, from defecting to China.
But all theories involving Malaysia, China, the US or any other government might soon be put to rest. In the days after the disappearance, the Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak told his Australian counterpart, Tony Abbott, that he believed it was mass murder-suicide by the pilot. If Ocean Infinity finds the plane in the southern Indian Ocean west of Perth, this will in all probability be established. The company plans to search four different areas in the southern Indian Ocean over the next few weeks. Each of these four ‘hot spots’ has been identified by different scientific investigations as a likely location of the wreckage. ‘I’m sure they will find MH370’, said Richard Godfrey on Monday.
Craig Pett, Independent journalist 