A lawyer and amateur sleuth who has allegedly recovered pieces from MH370 wants the Malaysian government to cede control of the investigation to Australia.
by Michael Mata
Blaine Alan Gibson, the American lawyer and amateur sleuth who has made headlines in the past for allegedly recovering debris from the doomed MH370 aircraft, has called on the Malaysian government to cede control of the investigation to Australia.
Gibson was in Perth recently to meet with some of the victims’ relatives as well as officials from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB). Gibson said that the Malaysian government has not collected the six pieces of debris he found in Madagascar more than three months ago, and was therefore in breach of its international obligations.
Gibson also claimed that the Malaysian government rejected a request from Madagascar for funds so that the latter could continue to search its beaches for wreckage.
Gibson praised Australia’s contributions, as well as the role of the ATSB, in the ongoing search for the missing aircraft. “Australia has done way more than its fair share [in funding the search] and is to be congratulated for that,” he said. “But Malaysia can do more and China can do more.”
Gibson believes that Malaysia should hand the investigation over to Australia, and that all the countries that had passengers on board should contribute to the continuation of the search.
MH370 disappeared on March 8, 2014, while flying from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing, China. The aircraft vanished from radar screens as it was transitioning between Malaysian and Vietnamese airspace. The Boeing 777-200ER aircraft had 227 passengers and 12 crew on board.
Following careful analysis of satellite data, it was determined that MH370 continued to fly for over six hours after contact was lost. MH370 then entered the sea close to a long but narrow arc of the southern Indian Ocean.
Gibson brought with him several more pieces of the wreckage. “The sea is slowly revealing its secrets,” he stated. “I have found four pieces of the interior, which proves that the plane shattered on impact and did not sink intact to the bottom as some claim.”
