Emirates CEO shares doubts over MH370 disappearance
Emirates ceo Tim Clark has raised concern surrounding the mysterious disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, saying the aviation industry “must know” what happened.
In an interview with German publication Spiegel Online, the EK boss has spoken out seven months after the Boeing 777 plane went missing and has taken a proactive approach as the airline operates more of the same aircraft than any other carrier.
“MH 370 remains one of the great aviation mysteries. Personally, I have the concern that we will treat it as such and move on. At the most, it might then make an appearance on National Geographic as one of aviation's great mysteries. We mustn't allow this to happen. We must know what caused that airplane to disappear,” Clark said as revealed by Spiegel Online’s transcript of the interview.
In the interview, the Age reports Clark hinted that he considered some information about the missing aircraft was being concealed and shared doubts about aspects of the investigation.
"I think we will know more if there is full transparency of everything that everybody knows. I do not believe that the information held by some is on the table," Clark said.
Despite the plane’s reporting system (ACARS) seemingly having been disabled, Clark said it would still remain traceable through weak signals or after taking considerable steps to do so in the aircrafts’ avionics bay.
"That requires you to leave the flight deck and go down through a trap door in the floor to do that. But somehow this thing was disabled so much so that the ground tracking capability was eliminated," Clark said.
Clark also pointed the finger toward the Malaysian military in the interview, saying their lack of action after the aircraft reversed course was “bizzare”, according to the Age.
"I know this did not have to happen, there is technology to track these aircraft and everybody will say that, Boeing or Airbus.”
"That is where the conundrum is of mystery, that is where we must be more forthright and candid as to what went on, it is not good enough for the Malaysian military to say: 'On a prime radar we identified it as friendly'.
"What would have happened if the aircraft would have turned back to fly into the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur? But we identified it as 'friendly'. Friendly with intent, or friendly without intent? But what was done? These are the questions that need to be asked of the people and the entities that were involved in all of this."
According to Clark, pilot suicide would have been a “huge challenge” to continue to fly the plane for hours instead of crashing it into the sea.
"So if he was on a suicide mission, he would have done it then. Who then took control of the aircraft? Who then knew how to disable ACARS and turn the transponder off? That is a huge challenge,” Clark said.
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