Almost a
year after its disappearance, the fate of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370
remains a mystery - a painful situation that has impacted the lives of many, as
Sarah Bajc, whose partner was on the jet, tells DW.
Deutsche Welle, 5 March 2015
It has been
a painful year for the grieving families and friends of the victims of Flight
MH370. Despite the most expensive search and rescue operation in history, an
international team of investigators has yet to find evidence of any wreckage.
Some family
members are unwilling to accept the Malaysian government's conclusion that the
passenger jet was lost as the result of an accident and that all people on
board are dead. They are angry over how both the airline and the authorities
have handled the passenger jet's disappearance, arguing no evidence has been found
to support such claims. They have also expressed fears that the search
operations might be called off.
The fate of
the plane has been shrouded in mystery ever since it left Kuala Lumpur for
Beijing in the early morning hours of March 8 last year with 239 people on
board. Investigators believe an area west of Perth, Australia - along a narrow
arc in the southern Indian Ocean - is the most likely resting place of the jet.
One year
after the plane's mysterious disappearance, Sarah Bajc, whose partner Philip
Wood was on board the flight, talks in a DW interview about how the incident
has changed her life, why the victims' relatives mistrust the authorities'
claims and how the incident has led to positive changes in the aviation
industry.
 |
| Bajc: 'Philip's disappearance has impacted my life in every possible way' |
DW: One
year on, to what extent has the MH370 incident impacted your life?
Sarah Bajc:
Philip's disappearance has impacted my life in every possible way. My daily
life, and my future have changed dramatically.
On a
personal level, besides the time that we were both at work, we did everything
together: drinking coffee on the balcony in the morning, doing yoga, cooking
dinner, exploring the city, and sharing our thoughts and feelings.
We traveled
extensively, including spending time with each other's children, family and
friends. Now I'm alone. I am also constantly disrupted and distracted by my
pursuit of the truth. I spend hours every day dedicated to research,
discussions with experts, interface with other family members, and conducting
interviews with media. It is like I have two full-time jobs: teaching high
school and finding Philip.
How have
the friends and families of the remaining victims dealt with the plane's
disappearance?
Most of the
family members have had the opportunity to meet each other, either in person or
via social media. In general, it is a very supportive and valuable group.
However,
our efforts to share information and help each other have been significantly
hampered by the interference of the Chinese and Malaysian authorities as both
governments have taken active steps to prevent the family members from
organizing more formally.
Still, many
of us have become quite close, and we'll continue to work actively together to
find the truth.
How have
the authorities prevented family members from organizing more formally?
The Chinese
government has actively broken up family gatherings, saying they are illegal
meetings, and have threatened some family members with prosecution or
harassment.
The
Malaysians are more subtle. They have discouraged public discussion by
promising a sponsored "next of kin" group meeting and then doing
nothing, so people are left waiting for help.
In the
early stages of the crisis, we asked for help finding all those passengers'
families who had not already met each other through other avenues. We wanted to
include everyone in our discussions, but the authorities refused to publish
central contact links, or even to acknowledge the association we established
called Voice370.
What do you
make of the way the authorities have handled the incident?
There is
only one explanation of two unpleasant options: Either the Malaysian government
is grossly negligent due to incompetence and corruption to the point that they
have failed to handle even the simplest aspects of this situation, from the
beginning until today, or they are intentionally covering up what really
happened, either because they are to blame, or at the request of some other
power.
 |
| Significant evidence that should be normally released in an aviation incident investigation has been withheld, says Bajc |
Has any
member of the Malaysian government met with the victims' relatives?
There have
been several very superficial meetings, mostly in the form of a government
official making a statement to an audience of family members. There is no
honest, interactive discussion. Most emails, letters, and requests for
information have just been ignored. I have never been contacted by a government
official about Philip or MH370.
You have
commissioned a private investigation into the plane's disappearance. What
results has it yielded so far?
The only
thing we have learned conclusively is that active steps have been taken to
silence witnesses and destroy or hide evidence. Dozens of people involved with
the situation have been threatened to not talk.
Significant
evidence that should be normally released in an aviation incident investigation
has been withheld: full cargo manifest, full air traffic control records and
recordings, military radar tracking and airline operations center records. If
indeed this were an accident, all of those things would be released to validate
that diagnosis. Yet they remain hidden. Why?
What do you
make of Australia's response to the tragedy and how confident are you that the
plane will be found there?
I do not
believe the official story that MH370 is in the southern Indian Ocean. As such,
the entire effort by Australia is in my view a complete waste of resources and
public attention. The government of Australia is either very foolish to have
accepted the task of searching the ocean floor without concrete evidence that
the plane even went down there, or they are part of the cover-up.
 |
| Relatives and friends of the victims are angry over how the authorities have handled the jet's disappearance |
As a
response to the disappearance of MH370, members of the United Nations' aviation
arm, the International Civil Aviation Organization, recently endorsed a new
standard that will require commercial aircraft to report their position every
15 minutes. What do you make of this step?
Yes, this
is certainly a step in the right direction, though I would think every five
minutes would make far more sense and still be very practical from a technical
perspective. This is something that should have been done many years ago.
Other
critically-needed changes include: a larger number of secured transponders that
cannot be shut off, much more powerful signal beacons at various places on the
plane, including the black box, with far longer-lasting batteries.
Sarah
Bajc's partner Philip Wood is among the 239 passengers on missing Malaysia
Airlines Flight MH370. Feeling misled by the investigating authorities, she and
others have been campaigning to raise money for a whistleblower.
The
interview was conducted by Gabriel DomÃnguez.
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