YOURSAY ‘On its radar was an unidentified aircraft that could have proven hostile.’
Malaysia lets slip chance to intercept MH370
Ratbatblue: The very first time there was a mention of a "turn-back" by MH370 in a news report in Malaysiakini , I asked what the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) was doing, as its military radar had picked up an unidentified aircraft in Malaysian sovereign space.
The least to be done would be to scramble our interceptors from the nearest base to confront the straying craft and to force it to identify itself.
In peacetime, this craft would be "guided" to land immediately if no satisfactory response was received. In war, it would have perhaps been shot down.
Thus a valuable chance to identify the craft went begging. Maybe it could have been forced to land. Whatever said, the RMAF has a lot of explaining to do.
In fact, I suspect that there is a lot of information being withheld from the public. The military radar is on call 24 hours day in and out, and the fighter squadrons are supposed to be on alert every second. Are we really safe from external threats?
Odin: One of the major culprits in this disaster is the RMAF. The excuse (that the radar blips were revealed only five days later as they needed to verify whether the airborne object was in fact MH370) given by its chief, Rodzali Daud, is not only a very lame one but is just totally unacceptable.
At the time when the blips were displayed (at 0121 hours on March 8) on their radar screens, the disappearance of MH370 was not yet known. When the blips appeared on their radar screens, they should have immediately scrambled their jet fighters to intercept/investigate the airborne object.
They cannot simply assume that it was a non-hostile aircraft.
The blips would not have indicated the nature or the identity of the object. But it is obvious to us that they did not do anything because they did not monitor their radar screens all the time or in real time.
If this had happened in any country with principled senior government officers, they, and the head of its air force, would have already resigned by now.
YUNoAnon: This is a critical test the military has failed by allowing an unauthorised aircraft to enter Malaysian airspace.
MH370 is unauthorised because it deviated from its flight path. The moment it deviated from its planned route, the aircraft should have been contacted.
And if there was no response then, the RMAF should have gone to escort it. This failure shows that they are just waiting for a repeat of 9/11 to happen before they start to "form a special committee" or "establish new SOP (standard operation procedure)" - the very same lackadaisical attitude that allowed the Lahad Datu invasion.
Ex-PJ: Asleep on the job - the best military equipment still needs competent people to operate. This is symptomatic of the government.
KangKungAyamRM1Malaysia: An unidentified flying object entered Malaysian space from the East, went across the peninsula and left Malaysian airspace heading Northwest.
It means, we might have lost major towns like Kuala Terengganu, Kota Bharu, Gua Musang, George Town, Prai, Sungai Petani and Langkawi.
And it would have managed to fly away without us knowing who or what hit us.
Bobster: Former defence ministers Najib Abdul Razak and Ahmad Zahid Hamidi should be held responsible and answerable for billions of ringgit in military spending, yet the importance of simple but reliable military radar was overlooked.
They should step down for their past blunders.
Cantabrigian: Who needs planes like the Sukhois or F-18s when Malaysia has the eagle-eyed Bomoh King and his not-yet-flying magic carpet?
Doc: Well, maybe our military radar operators noted that the speed and size of the blip seen on the radar on that day could be suggestive of a flying carpet, so they did not act on it.
Progressive: If we were attacked, like in Labis on Sept 2, 1964, when hundreds of Indonesian paratroopers landed without the radar detecting their two C-130 Hercules aircraft, what would the scenario have been?
If we had scrambled jets to intercept the huge blip on the radar in real time, we may have avoided this messy situation.
Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein should resign. The RMAF chief should resign too. And the radar controllers should be court-martialed.
Ong Guan Sin: This explains why during the initial days, the defence bosses only mentioned, almost in passing, that there was a "possible turn-back" without elaborating.
Possibly, somebody realised that disclosing that information was indirectly exposing serious negligence of duty and the breach of our air defence.
It dragged on a few more days until it was impossible to cover it up. And now we have a week wasted doing search-and-rescue operations in the wrong locations.
ThisLandIsMine: Under any other name, this was an intrusion whether it was a commercial flight or otherwise. When Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (Acars) transmissions were lost before Kota Bharu, why was there no alarm sounded?
Son of PJ: RMAF's SOP probably stated if an unidentified aircraft is flying away from Malaysian airspace, don't bother to do anything, it is not a threat - a case of our ‘tidak apa’ mentality.
Vijay47: The pieces are all falling into place now. The Air Force base in Butterworth did nothing when an unidentified plane appeared on their radar. Butterworth is in Penang. Penang is under DAP and Lim Guan Eng, who are part of Pakatan Rakyat.
That proves that the person behind the missing MH370 is Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim. Elementary, my dear Watson.
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