Seven months have passed since Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared without a trace. As authorities and aviation experts are still uncertain as to what exactly happened to the doomed Flight MH370, there was never a shortage of opinion and conspiracy theories.
In his interview with German magazine Spiegel, Emirates Airlines head Tim Clark revealed his theory on what happened to the aircraft. Clark, whose company operates about 130 Boeing 777 aircraft similar to the lost Malaysian Airlines jet, said that he believed the lost aircraft may not be in the Indian Ocean.
Clark's statement appears to be contradictory to the conclusion of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), which released its report this week that the missing aircraft flew over the Indian Ocean on autopilot until it plummeted from the sky and into the water when it ran out of fuel, bringing along with it over 200 people aboard.
Clark believes that control of the MH370 had been taken over. The 64-year-old said that in any water incident, something would always show up but no evidence has so far been found to confirm that the airplane had indeed ended up in the Indian Ocean.
"Our experience tells us that in water incidents, where the aircraft has gone down, there is always something," Clark said. "We have not seen a single thing that suggests categorically that this aircraft is where they say it is, apart from this so-called electronic satellite 'handshake,' which I question as well."
Clark also cited that, besides the case of Amelia Earhart in 1939, all other overwater incidents in civil aviation history was at least 5 percent trackable. MH370, which vanished on March 8 on its way to China, simply disappeared and this raises suspicions.
On Oct. 7, aviation experts from all over the world discussed several solutions on improving the feasibility of tracking missing aircraft. Clark said that Boeing 777, being among the most advanced aircraft in the world, does not need an additional monitoring system.
Nonetheless, he recommended that aircraft manufacturers come up with a way so the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ASCAR) as well as the transponder could not be disabled.
"I'm still struggling to come up with a reason why a pilot should be able to put the transponder into standby or to switch it off. MH370 was, in my opinion, under control, probably until the very end," Clark said.
