MH370 report will be ‘held back to cover up dive theory’

A report by experts reviewing the strategy to find MH370 may not be produced until after a current search is complete.

Visiting aviation and air safety experts examine the right outboard main wing flap from MH370 at the Australian Transport Safety Bureau in Canberra.

An Australian Transport Safety Bureau report by international experts reviewing the strategy to find Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 may not be produced until after the search is complete.

The revelation has prompted claims the ATSB is looking to provide itself with public relations cover for its decision to base the search on its “death dive” theory of an unpiloted rapid descent at the end of the flight. An alternative view suggests the review could identify a new search area.

Transport Minister Darren Chester last week opened a three-day meeting in Canberra of the ATSB’s Search Strategy Working Group, made up of experts from air crash investigation organisations in the US and Britain, satellite group Inmarsat, Boeing, European aerospace group ­Thales and the Australian Defence Science and Technology Organisation.

Representatives from the CSIRO, Geoscience Australia and the Malaysian and Chinese governments attended a “first principles review”.

In a statement, Mr Chester said the experts would “review all the available data and analysis ­associated with the search to date” and “inform the remainder of the search effort, and develop guidance for any future search operations”. The federal government’s Joint Agency Co-ordination Centre for the search conceded the review group’s report may not be produced until after the underwater search of 120,000sq km in the southern ­Indian Ocean is completed, due by January or February.

JACC spokesman Roger Gott­lob said the report “is currently being drafted and will be released in the coming months” but would not say whether it would be complete before the search ended. “The main focus for all concerned will continue to be finding the aircraft to assist the Malaysian investigation team and to bring closure to the families of the passengers and crew of MH370,” Mr Gottlob said.

Professional pilot and aviation commentator Byron Bailey said in commissioning the review, the ATSB was “just trying to write a cover story to protect themselves”. “They started with the wrong basis for the search that the pilot was unresponsive,” he said.

Air crash investigator John Cox said the ATSB review was “the next logical step”. “It is self-evident that the search effort, to date, has not been successful,” Captain Cox said. “Therefore, it is reasonable to put the experts in a room to review all the available data for ideas and recommendations. If this group finds reason to, and recommends searching in a different area, it will be much ­easier to persuade the involved countries.”

MH370 disappeared with 239 people on board on March 8, 2014, on a scheduled flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.