Superpower China ‘the missing element’ in search for MH370

Byron Bailey has challenged the Chinese government to take up the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.

‘I appeal to the Chinese government to take over the search,’ says Byron Bailey. Picture: John Feder.

Aviation expert and pilot Byron Bailey has challenged the Chinese government to take up the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, two days after the official search ended.

Mr Bailey told The Australian that China appeared relatively uninterested in finding MH370, despite losing 153 of its citizens on the plane.

“I appeal to the Chinese government to take over the search in the small 4300sq km area centred about 130km southwest of where the aircraft ran out of fuel or had its engines deliberately shut own,” he said. “A superpower with a large navy is well qualified to conduct a successful search for the huge 64m wreckage, even if it is broken up.”

Mr Bailey’s call for Chinese involvement came as Malaysia’s Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad, yesterday flagged that the search for MH370 may be resumed if new evidence comes to light.

“We have not found any evidence yet, so we have to come to a stage where we cannot keep searching for something we cannot find,” he said. “If we find any new information, we may resume the search. We regret it very much, and we understand the feelings of the relatives, but we cannot keep on searching for this MH370 forever.”

On Tuesday, the second subsea search for MH370 ended when marine survey company Ocean Infinity packed up its eight unmanned mini submarines.

Ocean Infinity, a British-owned, Houston-based company, had carried out a search of 112,000sq km under a deal with the Malaysian government that meant they would have been paid up to $70 million had they found the plane.

There were 239 people from 14 countries — including Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, India, France and the US — on board MH370, which disappeared on March 8, 2014, as it travelled from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Mr Bailey said it was important to get some closure for the grief-stricken families of those who were on board.

“It is important as well for the aviation industry and for the safety of the flying public to know what happened.

“Boeing obviously early on ­realised that this was not a technical fault with their B777 — probably the world’s safest airliner,” he writes.

“I’ve pointed out that the only mistake made by the Malaysian authorities and those in charge of Malaysia Airlines — a world-class airline — was to trust the Australian Transport Safety Board as being a competent and professional body.”

Mr Bailey said the ATSB had based their search on a rapid and uncontrolled descent and not a forced landing by a rogue pilot bent on destruction.

Yesterday, Teresa Liddle, the sister of Australian passenger Mary Burrows, called for a full inquiry into the handling of the search for the aircraft.

“It is critical to the aviation industry,” she said.

Ms Liddle said the ATSB should release key analyses of satellite tracking data on MH370 by international experts that have so far been denied, despite Freedom of Information requests.