At a meeting in Hawaii last week, the host country made an interesting offer to Asean. US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel was critical about disaster planning and preparation in our region. And well he might be. The United States was trying to rally the Asian region to give a better response to global warming. The poor response to last month’s disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 is a good example of why action is needed.
It is disturbing that a month after MH370 disappeared, crucial facts remain unknown. But it is frightening that this has occurred as a matter of policy of several Asean governments.
Malaysia is rightly being criticised for its shoddy, slovenly reaction to the disappearance of Flight MH370. Alongside Malaysia in this blame game are a number of Asean governments, including Thailand's.
The important part is that not only did Malaysia and other governments botch the Malaysia Airlines tragedy. The point is they all are poised to do it again with the next emergency when hundreds of lives are at stake.
The errors of the Malaysian Airlines fiasco deserve even greater publicity than they have received. The many governments involved failed not only the 239 doomed souls on Flight MH370. They failed each other, their own citizens and their neighbours. Vietnam, China, India and the relatives of those aboard the flight have all issued strong complaints, particularly to the Kuala Lumpur government. While Malaysia deserves all criticism, so do some of its Asean neighbours and others.
It is simple enough to start with Thailand. On the night a month ago that Flight 370 disappeared from routine surveillance, radar operators in Thailand saw the plane veer off course. It happened in real time. Within hours, the Thai government, military and public all knew that the flight was missing. Yet Thai authorities did nothing — literally nothing — about it. For days, the accurate radar reports of the Boeing 777’s erratic flight were not remarked upon, recovered or passed along.
Vietnam’s air control system clearly broke down. When Malaysian Airlines got instructions to contact Ho Chi Minh City on the radio, the Vietnamese controller never followed up.
And Kuala Lumpur and Vietnam together couldn’t get the plane’s last words right. They were not “All right, goodnight,” as Malaysia said for four weeks. The actual words were, “Goodnight, Malaysian three-seven-zero”.
This is not the proper response to a developing disaster story. Of course, the Malaysian military was far worse. They, too, had accurate radar reports showing that Flight 370 jinked over the sky and across Malaysia in an inexplicable manner. Then it disappeared over the Indian Ocean. The Malaysian authorities knew this but for three solid days wasted the 239 human lives and the resources of a dozen countries including Thailand's in a search they knew — knew beyond doubt — was taking place in the wrong place.
Disaster response demands fast action to save lives, mitigate losses and try to get relief to survivors. The response to Flight 370 by Malaysia and other countries did none of this. Malaysia purposely delayed response for eight hours. It refused to provide information on the source and location of the disaster.
The basic, frightening errors that were committed and omitted around Flight 370 are not unusual in regional disaster relief. The US offer to lead an effort at better response is timely. Disasters are inevitable and, by definition, occur with lightning speed.
The clear lesson of the airliner is that all of Asia needs to improve. The shameful manner in which the response to Flight MH370 was handled cannot be tolerated.