With so many questions, the search for MH370 must go on

In a couple of months the longest and most expensive search in ­aviation history will come to a close.

In a couple of months the longest and most expensive search in ­aviation history will come to a close. We can hope that the wreckage of MH370 will be found in the southern Indian Ocean in the ­remaining weeks as the weather and calmer seas allow for the completion of a search area based on the theory that the pilot was ­unresponsive when the plane hit the water.

Has the search been conducted in the wrong area? Lack of evidence to support a “rogue pilot” theory, which could change the search area, needs confirmation from the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder.

However, there are some clues for the detectives among us:

1. Why did the MH370 captain put on so much fuel for departure from Kuala Lumpur? Malaysian Airlines was notorious for arriving at Heathrow with about 10 minutes of fuel remaining. The ­weather in MH370’s intended destination of Beijing was fine, meaning he would have landed in China with approximately 2½ hours of fuel remaining.

2. Flight deck procedures for airline crew in the event of an emergency mandate an immediate “mayday” call and a transponder to be activated.

This did not happen.

3. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has suggested the crew may have been unresponsive because of a “lack of oxygen”. However, crew are trained to don their oxygen masks in seconds and the length of consciousness at 35,000 feet is 30-60 seconds.

4. The subsequent track flown to north of Sumatra, after the turnback on the route to Beijing, suggests pilot control — as stated by the head of the world’s largest international airline, which has more than 150 Boeing 777s. He also stated pilots should not be able to turn off transponders in flight.

5. The ATSB ignored data — revealed to me well over two years ago — sourced from deleted information from the MH370 captain’s home computer that showed he had plotted a course to the southern Indian Ocean.

6. The continuing ­explanation of the ATSB that it is responsible only for the search, and not the investigation, must be challenged. If a “rogue pilot” was involved, it may render the search area invalid.

This “head in the sand” attitude by the ATSB has not enhanced its professional reputation. It must be awful for the families of the ­deceased not to know where the bodies of their loved ones are.

The search must go on.