Poor coordination led to 3 wasted days in search for MH370, says Wall Street Journal

April 01, 2014

For three days, the search for flight MH370 concentrated on an area 2,500km from Perth but it shifted 1,100km when it was discovered the plane had been flying a shorter distance after burning more fuel than expected. Reuters pic, April 1, 2014.For three days, personnel involved in the search for missing flight MH370 went to an area hundreds of kilometres from where the plane might have crashed in the Indian Ocean, resulting in delays and scrambling to search in a new area.

The Wall Street Journal reported today pinned the fruitless search on lapses in coordination between the countries and companies involved in the search and rescue efforts.

On March 28, acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said MH370 was believed to have flown a shorter distance after burning more fuel than expected.

Following the announcement, the search area shifted abruptly about 1,100km from the earlier site in the southern Indian Ocean, following a refined data analysis.

The WSJ reported that the authorities merged two investigative leads from an international team of experts which had been working separately.

The experts had been trying to estimate where naval forces should be looking for wreckage in the southern Indian Ocean.

"One team's calculations of MH370's likely speed and rate of fuel consumption was based on radar data and aircraft-performance modeling," the business paper reported.

"Another team worked separately for several days using satellite data to calculate MH370's like trajectory," people familiar with the matter told WSJ.

It reported the startling lack of coordination raises questions about the flow of information among the many parties involved in the multinational operation.

On March 24, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced that Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 was believed to have ended its journey in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

Najib said this was based on data provided by British satellite company Inmarsat and the UK's Air Accidents Investigations Branch.

Authorities then focused all their search efforts on the southern part of the Indian Ocean, stopping searches in the northern corridor.

However, after three days of fruitless searching, the focus of the hunt in the Indian Ocean has been shifted closer to the coast of Australia.

WSJ reported that people familiar with the Malaysian-led probe said it was an evolving process.

"Investigators have shared all the relevant information with Malaysia's international partners," WSJ was informed.

However, Malaysian officials did not feel it was their call to ensure that foreign experts were sharing refined data among themselves.

Former US ambassador to Malaysia James Keith told WSJ that Malaysia did not have the necessary structure for an inter-agency coordination.

"The MH370 crisis has exposed Malaysia's lack of preparation to deal with such a disaster," said Keith, who served as the US ambassador to Malaysia from 2007 to 2010.

WSJ reported that some of the parties involved in the latest analysis were the US National Transport Safety Board and Boeing April 1, 2014.