Experts cautious following Malaysian announcement

Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak (C) makes an announcement on the latest development on the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 plane at Putra World Trade Center in Kuala Lumpur March 24, 2014. Prime Minister Najib has told families of passengers of a missing Malaysian airliner that the plane ended its journey in the southern Indian Ocean, he said on Monday. Seen on right is Malaysia's acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein and on left is Department of Civil Aviation's Director General Azharuddin Abdul Rahman. [Photo/Agencies]

Chinese experts told China Daily late on Monday that though Malaysian Prime Minister has announced that flight MH370 had ended into the southern Indian Ocean, "a considerable period of time" was required to verify this conclusion.

Wu Peixin, an aviation expert in Beijing, said that the Malaysian authorities reached their conclusion based on analysis of the Air Accidents Investigation Branch and Inmarsat using satellite imagery.

"However, as far as I know, no one outside the two organizations and the Malaysian government has seen solid evidence such as authenticated parts of the aircraft's debris," he said. "Is there any other evidence they can provide to the public or investigators of other nations? What exactly is their 'new analysis' that was cited by the prime minister?"

Wu said he thinks the AAIB and Inmarsat have been working on imagery obtained by civilian satellites rather than military ones that have more reliable high-resolution pictures.

"In addition, the search operation for debris will take a long time because I don't think we have detailed and reliable hydrological data for many areas in that part of the Indian Ocean," Wu said. "Therefore, even nations with advanced maritime search technology such as the United States will have to use military aircraft to detect any magnetic anomaly to find traces of possible debris."

Wu's view was echoed by Wang Ya'nan, deputy editor-in-chief of Aerospace Knowledge magazine, who said he does not think this is a "final result," because there has been no clear evidence.

"The Malaysian government just announced the plane flew southward and crashed, but it didn't explain how they reached such a conclusion," he said.

Wang also suggested that search aircraft and ships should head to the southern part of Malaysia as quickly as possible.

Song Xiaojun, a military commentator in Beijing, said the information should be analyzed by satellite specialists and confirmed by more countries involved in the search for MH370. He added that the prime minister’s announcement indicated the Malaysian government had agreed with the AAIB's conclusion, which excluded the north route and claimed the flight had crashed.

But he added that no debris or wreckage has been found – and that the conclusion was "a little bit blind."

Yin Zhuo, a military expert with the Chinese navy, also said the final conclusion should be based on data from the black box of the flight, but added that it might take a long time to find.

Yin added that he does not think that this is "the final answer," but that "It's just the duty of the Malaysian government to announce the information as they find new search developments."

"Only after the search teams find and confirm that debris in the ocean is from the aircraft and retrieve the black box can a final conclusion be made," he said.

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