Azharuddin: Many still ask me about MH370

Never forgotten: Children engaging in activities during the 10th Annual Remembrance of the MH370 tragedy. — YAP CHEE HONG/The Star

KUALA LUMPUR: Ten years after the MH370 tragedy, former Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) chairman Datuk Seri Azharuddin Abdul Rahman says people are still questioning and accusing him over the disappearance of the flight.

The Malaysia Airlines aircraft took off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in the early hours of March 8, 2014, bound for Beijing, only to disappear without a trace, sparking a global mystery that endures to this day.

CAAM, previously known as the Civil Aviation Department (DCA), oversaw the operations of the Kuala Lumpur Air Traffic Control Centre.

Azharuddin was at the helm of the DCA when the tragic incident unfolded.

The flight vanished from the radar screen about two hours after departure.

Azharuddin described the flight, in which 239 passengers and crew disappeared, as the most challenging case he had ever handled.

He said people were still curious and constantly asked him about the search mission that was conducted in the aftermath.

However, some families still do not believe CAAM even after a decade, he said sorrowfully.

“Whenever I attend a wedding or a community surau, people come forward and ask me what exactly happened,” he told Bernama recently.

Despite various assumptions and theories by aviation experts to date, the million-dollar question as to why the aircraft backtracked over Peninsular Malaysia remains unanswered.

“Looking at the way the aircraft flew back, went to Penang, Langkawi and Sumatra, and then returned again, it must have been flown by a pilot who knew what he was doing and someone who has flown a Boeing 777 aircraft, because he followed the track or flight path a commercial airline flies.

“But who is the pilot? No one knows. Was it Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah? Or was it someone else? If it was Zaharie, where was the co-pilot?” he said.He also emphasised that the MH370 aircraft lacked safeguards such as equipment preventing unauthorised individuals from taking control of the plane.

There is a three-part series on Netflix titled MH370: The Plane That Disappeared, which aired in March last year, featuring three theories, including sensational conspiracies.

According to Azharuddin, the theories outlined were based on assumptions and were unacceptable.

“I was so unhappy with the series that I wrote a letter to them (producers) over my dissatisfaction.

“They initially informed me that the series would be narrated, centred on the theme of grief, and conducted an eight-hour interview with me,” he said.

The British docuseries explored three distinct conspiracy theories as it sought to unravel the mystery surrounding the disappearance of the aircraft.

Following its disappearance, massive search operations involving several countries were conducted in the southern Indian Ocean but neither the plane nor its wreckage was found.

Malaysia and several international companies have conducted extensive search operations covering millions of square kilometres through air, surface sea and undersea endeavours in an effort to locate the elusive aircraft.

On Monday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim expressed Malaysia’s readiness to reopen the investigation into the missing flight should new and compelling evidence come to light.

Transport Minister Anthony Loke has also given assurance of his ministry’s commitment to securing Cabinet approval for a new contract with Ocean Infinity to resume the search for MH370.