Despite its determination and sincere intention of finding the remains, or whatever is left of it, of the ill-fated Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 that disappeared on March 8, 2014, the Malaysian government and three separate organizations still became the subject of a lawsuit filed in court in August by five family members of victims of the accident.
On December 28, the Malaysian government has filed an application with the court to strike out the lawsuit, citing that it is frivolous and constituted an abuse of the court process, reports the International Business Times.
The lawsuit claimed that negligence caused the accident and that the Department of Civil Aviation of Malaysia failed to take appropriate action after contact with Flight MH370 was lost.
The complaint also said that the airline company failed to ensure that the plane was in good condition before takeoff. The case was filed through Ngeow & Tan at the High Court Registry.
Malaysian Airlines Berhad, which was also part of the receiving end of the complaint, stated that it was only corporatized in November 2014, about eight months after the flight went missing which means that it should not be part of the respondents.
The company claimed that it was not a successor of the Malaysia Airline System Berhad. In addition, the Royal Malaysian Air Force has also been named as a defendant to the case.
Distinguished service medal
Meanwhile, the man who spearheaded New Zealand’s search for Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 after it went missing in March 2014 was given a distinguished service medal, reports Stuff.co.nz.
Andy Scott, New Zealand Defence Force wing commander, was awarded the New Zealand Distinguished Service Decoration for services to the NZDF as part of the New Year Honours 2016.
Scott took the lead in the defence force’s search for the missing flight after it disappeared while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
While the search team is composed primarily of the governments of Australia, Malaysia, and China, New Zealand also fielded a P-3 Orion to scout the Indian Ocean west of Australia for any sight of the ill-fated Flight MH370.
Searching at the right place
Contrary to the perception of some critics that the search team is looking at the wrong place in trying to locate the remains of the ill-fated Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370, Australia believes that the joint initiative with China and Malaysia is searching on the right place.
According to Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss in a press conference in Canberra early this month, the search team is on the right track based on a recent analysis that confirmed the highest probability of where the wreckage of the missing plane could be located.
He also said that three-quarters of the identified hot spot have already been scoured by the search team, hinting that the remaining 25% could finally turn up the wreckage of the Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 which disappeared on March 8, 2014.
It was actually the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) that came out with an analysis that said that the search zone was right on target.
The search zone is actually a 120,000-square-kilometer arc off the southern Indian Ocean off the coast of Western Australia.
Also based on the latest analysis of ATSB, pilots of the Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 have experienced a sudden loss of electric power in the plane, which resulted to multiple parts failing within a short span of time and eventually leading to the likely crash of the aircraft.
The analysis also said that the runaway power outage might have led the plane’s system to shut down.
Before the outage, the pilots of Flight MH370 were able to regularly contact air traffic controllers and the plane could transmit its location.
But after the outage, two automatic reporting systems – the transponder and a separate system which gave out details about the plane’s critical systems – have stopped functioning.
The Government’s strike out motion is frivolous & vexatious. Here is why:
In December 2015 the ATSB reported massive electrical failure before 18:03 UTC was why the SDU satellite antenna was out of action until 18:25 UTC.
The Left AC transfer relay did not power the SDU. On a Boeing 777 the Right Integrated Drive Generator is designed to kick in automatically to power the Left AC relay during a failure by the closure of a circuit tie breaker.
If the Tie breaker did not close then the failure was across both Left and Right Bus relays. in that case the Standby Transfer Relay kicked in. The Standby relay will power the autopilot but it will not power the AIMS navigation brain.
Without navigation MH370 could not have navigated through the Straits of Malacca and could not have made precise turns to intercept waypoint VAMPI and then turn to intercept waypoint MEKAR as Malaysia claims military radar observed.
Satellite data does not necessarily corroborate a detour west around Sumatra. Some of the data between 18:25 and 18:28 UTC is highly erroneous. It maybe that the satellite data is erroneous because of electrical failures on MH370.
Malaysia has always refused to prove these radar sightings. The Government therefore can’t prove indeterminate cause of MH370’s loss as grounds for strike out as it has not proved MH370 detoured through the Straits at all. In fact the malaysian Government has introduced what appears to be falsified evidence to mislead the investigation of MH370.
If the Government itself is the author of false evidence then it cannot refute the claims of others as vexatious or frivolous.
You nailed it Simon Gunson.You were right from the very beginning dear friend.