Unprecedented move as MH370’s secret vault revealed

It took an Australian woman to help unlock one of Malaysia’s biggest secrets about the world’s biggest aviation mystery — and it raises more questions than answers.

The Malaysian government has vowed to continued the search for MH370 after a heartfelt appeal by the widow of one of the doomed flight’s Australian passengers.

In an unprecedented move, Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad met Perth mother-of-two Danica Weeks, whose husband Paul was on board the Malaysia Airline flight, as she pleaded her case for the search to be resumed.

“We intend to continue,” Dr Mahathir told Ms Weeks when she urged him to keep searching for the plane.

“And nowadays, with electronic detection, it may be possible for us to find where the plane had come down.”

Danica Weeks lost her husband Paul in the MH370 tragedy.

It is the first time the political leader has ever spoken with a relative of a victim of MH370.

In the five years since MH370 vanished over the South China Sea, there have been conflicting theories about what actually happened in the early hours of March 8, 2014.

But the overriding belief of experts is that Captain Zaharie Ahamd Shah deliberately crashed his Boeing 777 – after flying it on a course he had previously mapped on his home flight simulator program – into the southern Indian Ocean.

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Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad met with Perth mother-of-two Danica Weeks, whose husband paul died on MH370.

Ms Weeks told Sunday night’s 60 Minutes: “Every single plane crash has an answer. MH370, we have nothing.”

She told the program she was determined to find answers for her young sons Lincoln and Jack.

“This isn’t just about 239 people on a Boeing 777,” Danica Weeks told 60 Minutes reporter Sarah Abo. “This is about eight million people every day that get on a flight. Wives, husbands, family members off for holidays, workers that get on a plane and we don’t know what happened.”

After Ms Weeks’ unprecedented meeting with Dr Mathair, Malaysia’s Transport Minister Anthony Loke granted 60 Minutes access to a secret vault containing a confirmed fragment from the Malaysia Airlines plane.

The overriding belief of experts is that Captain Zaharie Ahamd Shah deliberately crashed his Boeing 777 into the sea.

The access was granted, 60 Minutes reporter Sarah Abo said, “by way of helping prove Malaysia’s renewed commitment to the investigation”.

Mr Loke told 60 Minutes: “We have never discounted any possibilities, and we are still committed for the search and to find the plane.

“So I mean, as far as we are concerned, our main focus is that we hope that more credible evidence that will surface in the months to come so that the search can be resumed.”

Described by 60 Minutes as “hallowed ground” the “eerie” vualt contains part of the doomed plane’s wing flaperon.

The secret MH370 vault is opened for the first time.

“It’s eerie to think this fragment represents a giant aircraft lying somewhere at the bottom of the ocean along with its passengers and crew,” reporter Sarah Abo said as she examined the wreckage.

“Fewer than 30 pieces of wreckage that may have come from the aircraft have ever been found. Only three, including this, have been confirmed as MH370.

When asked by 60 Minutes if national pride was blinding him to the possibility that Captain Zaharie Shah could be responsible for the tragedy, Mr Loke said no one could be blamed “until we find the black box”.

“Well, we do not discount anything. I do not think that we discounted any evidence.

“But I think it’s not fair to blame anybody at this point of time.

The long search for MH370 took three years but ended up proving fruitless.

Journalist Ean Higgins told 60 Minutes he thought the opening of the secret vault was an indication that the notoriously secretive Malyasian Government was open to being more transparent.

“I think one thing among others is that for the first time a television crew has actually seen the wreckage, seen the flap.

“Now, it’s quite an achievement in its own right. It’s quite a scoop journalistically. But it’s more than that, I think.

“What it shows is that the Malaysians are starting to open up. They are opening up to the West, to Western journalists. It all shows a capacity to look at this again and come to possible conclusions as to what might have happened to the aircraft.

Peter Chong defended his friend, Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah.

Mr Higgins told 60 Minutes Malaysia’s unwillingness to accept Shah’s possible involvement all came down to “saving face”.

“I think it’s pretty simple. They don’t want to lose face,” he said.

“It’s very important in Asian cultures. It’s a government-owned airline and it’s not a good look for Malaysia to have one of its nationals, one of its pilots, to take 238 innocent people to their deaths.

60 Minutes also spoke exclusively to Peter Chong, a close friend of MH370’s commanding pilot, Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah.

“Anybody that knows captain would immediately tell you that he’s not this kind of person that would do such a thing,” he said.

Malaysia Airlines’ crisis manager Fuad Sharuji refused to accept his captina’s involvement.

“We don’t believe so,” he said. “For a person to actually take the lives of 239 passengers and crew on board, including his own life, must be a completely deranged person.

“Madman, crazy. None of that is the character of Captain Zaharie.”