18 page letter to a Malaysian Coward
Family of missing MH370 passengers write 18-page letter to Prime Ministers of Australia and Malaysia demanding answers about the doomed flight as search team announces it is to send technology deeper
- Families have slammed 'skimpy accounts' of what happened
- Sent the letter to Tony Abbott and Malaysia's PM Najib Razak
- Want raw radar data from MH370 be released for independent analysis
- The Malaysia Airlines plane went missing on March 8
- Underwater search is to begin a deeper hunt in the southern Indian Ocean
Furious family members of those on board MH370 have written an 18-page letter demanding answers, 76 days after the Malaysia Airlines plane went missing without a trace.
It claims the families are fed up with 'skimpy accounts' of what occurred. 'There is some confusion over the [plane's] last point of contact,' the letter reads.
It has been sent to Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, days before a deeper search of the southern Indian Ocean begins.
Demanding answers: Sarah Bajc's (left) partner Phillip Wood (right), 50, was on board MH370, along with 238 other passengers and crew, when it disappeared in the early hours of March 8 on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing
A host of Malaysian ministers and Government bodies involved in the so far fruitless search also received a copy of the letter, which calls for all the wrong information about what happened to their loved ones to be erased.
It analyses the preliminary report into the plane’s disappearance, which was released on May 1.
Sarah Bajc's partner Phillip Wood, 50, was on board the plane, along with 238 other passengers and crew, when it disappeared in the early hours of March 8 on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Angry: Family of the missing MH370 passengers have written an 18-page letter to the Prime Ministers of Australia and Malaysia demanding answers. A stock picture of the plane is shown in this photo
Recipient: Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott received a copy of the letter
She has spoken up for the families involved in writing the letter, who were helped by a host of experts, including retired pilots and air traffic controllers and military experts to compile their report.
Ms Bajc, who lives in Beijing, said the 350 family members want more answers about the investigation to be released and for transparency, the Courier Mail reports.
They have asked that raw radar data from MH370 be released for independent analysis.
And they have also questioned how authorities could be certain the Boeing 777 had crashed into the southern Indian Ocean.
Devastated: Relatives of passengers on board the missing flight, seen here in Beijing in March, have still not received much concrete information
In charge: Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak also received the letter from distraught families
The Malaysian Government has now pledged to publicly release the raw satellite data, from Insmarsat satellite communications company, which shows how the plane's path was located after it disappeared from civilian and military radar.
However, they have given no indication on when this will be done.
'We request that a comprehensive interim report be issued as soon as possible detailing all the known facts, to include, but not be limited to, the many areas that we have enumerated in our analysis.
'We believe that eliminating wrong information and assumptions is as important as confirming correct information and assumptions,' the letter says.
The search for MH370, off Perth on Australia's west coast, has so far failed to bring results.
Searching: The Bluefin-21, operating from the Australian navy's Ocean Shield vessel (pictured), has been searching an area of the Indian Ocean where four acoustic signals were detected in early April
At sea: Commander James Lybrand Mission Commander ADV Ocean Shield (left) and Chris 'Sharkie' Moore, Phoenix Team Lead, watch the launching of the Phoenix Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) Artemis off the deck of Ocean Shield on April 17, 2014
It has now emerged that the underwater search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane by the Bluefin-21 drone will wind up in days, ahead of commercially contracted technology being used for a deeper ocean hunt.
The Bluefin-21, operating from the Australian navy's Ocean Shield vessel, has been searching an area of the Indian Ocean where four acoustic signals were detected in early April.
Retired defence chief Angus Houston, who has previously said the sounds were man-made, on Thursday said it was still too early to discount the pings amid speculation they might not be from flight MH370's black box after all.
'They are still being analysed,' Mr Houston told ABC TV.
'We are ensuring that nothing has been overlooked and that everything has been considered.'
Work also continues to review and analyse all the data and information relating to the likely flight path of MH370, which was largely provided by British company Inmarsat.
Mr Houston said the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) would make an announcement about that 'extensive and very robust process of review' in the future.
'Nothing has been overlooked': Former Defence Chief Angus Houston, Chief Coordinator of the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC), said it was still too early to discount the pings that were heard in the southern Indian Ocean
Clueless: The search for MH370, off Perth on Australia's west coast, has so far failed to bring much evidence to light
He was certain the Boeing 777 wound up in the Indian Ocean and searchers were looking in the 'right broad area'.
JACC said Ocean Shield was expected to depart the search area on Wednesday and return to the West Australian fleet base on Saturday where the Bluefin-21 would be demobilised.
In the meantime, it will continue operating within its depth operating limits.
Two Chinese ships, the Haixun 01 and Zhu Kezhen, are on their way to the search area to map the ocean floor in preparation for the deep ocean technology, which, like the Bluefin-21, will use side-scan sonar to hunt for wreckage.
Mr Houston also said the first book about the plane, written by American writer Nigel Cawthorne, was disappointing and insensitive.
In the book, Cawthorne claims the plane could have been shot down by US-Thai strike fighters as part of a training drill that went horribly wrong.
'The families have gone through an incredibly traumatic time over the last two-and-a-half months,' Mr Houston said.
'To be putting books out at this stage is very premature.
'There's still a long way to go with the search, and of course, if we eventually find the aircraft, the investigation into what actually happened.'
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