ATSB ‘look guilty of cover-up’, says MH370 victim’s widow

The Australian 12:00am April 20, 2017

Ean Higgins

Australian and Chinese families of those who died on Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 yesterday expressed outrage at Australian authorities’ refusal to release crucial documents, with an Australian widow saying it made them “look more guilty” of a cover-up.

Danica Weeks, whose husband Paul perished when the flight went missing three years ago, called on Australian Transport Safety Bureau chief commissioner Greg Hood to reverse his decision to reject a freedom of ­information request from The Australian. “Who are they trying to save face for; is it the Malaysians or the ATSB?” Ms Weeks, who lives on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, said yesterday.

Mr Hood upheld another ATSB officer’s decision to not ­release opinions of an international team of experts about satellite data which the bureau claims support its theory that MH370 went down in an unpiloted crash with the flight crew incapacitated.

The ATSB relied on what has become known as the “ghost flight” and “death dive” theory to design the strategy for its failed $200 million underwater search for the aircraft.

Many aviation experts claim the search could never have succeeded because the ATSB’s “unresponsive pilots” premise was wrong, and suggest instead that captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah ­hijacked his own aircraft and flew it to the end and outside the search zone.

The Boeing 777, with 239 ­people on board, deviated about 40 minutes into a scheduled flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, when its radar transponder was turned off and radio communications ended, with automatic satellite tracking data showing it ended up in the southern Indian Ocean.

Ms Weeks said she was so ­enraged by Mr Hood’s decision that she was inclined to take up an offer from Brisbane barrister Greg Williams to work pro bono to use every legal avenue available to force him to release the documents.

“It is our loved ones, and it ­affects the whole flying public,” Ms Weeks said. “The Australian taxpayer paid a significant amount for the search; surely we have the right to know.”

The association representing families of Chinese MH370 victims issued a statement noting the ATSB’s general manager for strategic capability, Colin McNamara, originally refused the FOI request on the basis it could “cause damage to the international relations of the commonwealth”. The families said they believed this formed a pattern in which Malaysian authorities “have something to hide”, and Australian authorities were assisting them to this end.

In justifying his rejection of the FOI application, Mr Hood wrote “the activities of the ATSB with respect to assisting the Malaysian investigation are covered by the Transport Safety Investigation Act” and the documents sought had been classified as restricted.