Queensland to consider MH370 inquest

Queensland’s Attorney-General will consider whether to order a coronial inquest into the deaths of four people on MH370.

Queensland Attorney-General Yvette D'Ath. Picture: AAP

Queensland’s Attorney-General will consider whether to order a coronial inquest into the deaths of four people from the state on Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

A recent letter from Yvette D’Ath’s chief of staff to veteran pilot and MH370 campaigner Byron Bailey says under the state Coroner’s Act she has the power to order an inquest, even if the deaths occurred outside Australia.

The letter asks Mr Bailey to provide new evidence about MH370 and says once received, Ms D’Ath will consider his ­request for an inquest.

The move comes amid further developments ahead of the sixth anniversary of MH370’s disappearance, including speculation of a new search for the aircraft and a major documentary on the mystery airing on Sky News this week. MH370 disappeared on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board.

Forty minutes into the flight the Boeing 777 vanished from radar screens as its secondary radar transponder was turned off, and radio contact ceased.

A playback of military primary radar and analysis of automatic satellite “handshakes” found MH370 had turned back over Malaysia and then flown to the southern Indian Ocean.

A two-year search led by the Australian Transport Safety ­Bureau failed to find the aircraft. A subsequent hunt by ocean survey company Ocean Infinity was also unsuccessful.

Mr Bailey and other aviation professionals believe the searches failed because the ATSB ­assumed MH370 crashed rapidly after running out of fuel on autopilot. Others believe there is ­evidence the captain, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, ditched it.

Brisbane man Greg Williams, Mr Bailey, and another former airline captain, Mike Keane, have spent months communicating with Ms D’Ath’s office in a bid to persuade her to launch an ­inquest into the deaths of married couples Rodney and Mary Burrows, and Robert and Catherine Lawton who were on holiday together.

It is thought that Ms D’Ath would be more likely to order an inquest if one or more relatives of the Burrows and the Lawtons ­requested her to do so, and Mr Williams has been in contact with some of them.

Ean Higgins is author of The Hunt for MH370 and worked with the Sky News team on the documentary MH370: The Untold Story