Missing Malaysian flight mystery deepens

by Dulmin Samarasinghe

The mystery of the missing Malaysian plane, MH 370, from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing since March 8 continues to baffle aviation and security officials as investigations into the claim of debris found off 1500 miles south west of Perth, Australia became futile.

Twenty-five countries are assisting in the search. The search focused on a vast land and sea area through much of Asia. The Sri Lankan government on the request of the Malaysian government granted rescue teams permission to enter Sri Lanka's airspace to extend the search operation.

Aircraft engage in search and rescue operations belonging to Malaysia, United States, Australia and New Zealand were granted over flight clearance.

Investigations into the flight simulator taken from the missing pilot, Captain Zaharie Ahmad's home showed software for five practice runaways including Sri Lanka. The software includes International Airport in Maldives, 3 airports in India and Sri Lanka, one belonging to US military base in Diego Garcia. All have a runaway length of 1000 metres.

Aviation and security officials have not succeeded in finding the aircraft despite deploying high technology radar and other gadgets. Malaysian police have refocused the probe on the crew, passengers and ground staff based on the leads which say that someone on the plane deliberately changed its path after switching off its communication equipment.

Malaysian authorities are probing whether the plane dropped to an altitude of 5000 feet or lower to evade radar. "The person who had the control over the aircraft has a solid knowledge of avionics and navigation and left a clean track", officials said.

The technique of flying low to evade radar, "Terrain Masking", is used by military pilots to fly to their targets stealthily using landscape to mask their approach from microwaves.