The British Commercial boss of Malaysia Airlines believes “something untoward” has happened to flight MH370 and admits it could take decades to locate the missing jet.
Hugh Dunleavy spoke to the London Evening Standard about the aicraft that disappeared on March 8 as it flew to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur.
He said: “Something untoward happened to that plane. I think it made a turn to come back, then a sequence of events overtook it, and it was unable to return to base.
“I believe it’s somewhere in the south Indian Ocean. But when [a plane] hits the ocean it’s like hitting concrete. The wreckage could be spread over a big area. And there are mountains and canyons in that ocean.
“I think it could take a really long time to find. We’re talking decades.”
The airline’s commercial boss hit out at the Malaysian government for taking so long to reveal the missing plane had turned back towards the Strait of Malaysia,
“I only heard about this through the news,” Mr Dunleavy said. “I’m thinking, really? You couldn’t have told us that directly?
“Malaysia’s air traffic control and military radar are in the same freakin’ building. The military saw an aircraft turn and did nothing.
“They didn’t know it was MH370, their radar just identifies flying objects, yet a plane had gone down and the information about something in the sky turning around didn’t get released by the authorities until after a week. Why? I don’t know. I really wish I did.”
Mr Dunleavy also defended his company’s initial response to the disappearance.
He explained “an hour goes frighteningly quickly” when you are trying to communicate with othe pilots to explain the situation and there are only a couple of people in the office at 4am.