Q: Why is it so hard to find evidence?
The region being searched, including the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea, are busy shipping lanes with large amounts of flotsam that will complicate the search for any wreckage.
“When they see something, it is not blatantly obvious that it is a wing or tail. They have to go and examine what it is, it takes time,” Soejatman said.
Q: Why have authorities not picked up any signals?
Aircraft have an Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) which is designed mainly for when the plane crashes on land and pilots are still trying to control it. In the event of a major crash, it may not work.
“Basically what this beacon does is simply say ‘I’ve been activated, find me!’” Soejatman said. “It is not fool-proof but it is the best thing that we have at the moment.”
The plane also has a “black box” consisting of the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder. If immersed in water they should activate a “pinger” that can draw investigators to the location. However, the sound cannot be heard over long distances.
“You need a ship equipped with a listening sonar to pick up the signal within the area,” Soejatman said, cautioning however that the shallow waters of the MH370 search site could create interference.
The missing Boeing 777-200ER was also equipped with ACARS (Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System), a system which sends short messages to ground controllers — either automatically or manually depending on the airline.
“If Malaysia Airlines does have these messages, that would be very useful” to determine events before it lost contact, Soejatman said.
Malaysia Airlines’ chief executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya told reporters at a press conference late Monday that the missing aircraft was equipped with ACARS, but did not provide any further details.
An airline representative later confirmed: “The aircraft has got the ACARS system which transmits automatically. There were no distress calls. No information was relayed.”
Q: Is security at Kuala Lumpur International Airport questionable?
Revelations that at least two people aboard the plane were using stolen European passports have heightened fears about a security breach.
Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism expert at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, said the passport issue could indicate a “glaring flaw” in the airport’s immigration clearance.
He noted that Interpol maintains a database of stolen passports that should have raised alarms at the immigration counter.
“There are two categories of people who use these (stolen passports) — criminals and terrorists,” he said.
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