A woman whose partner was on the Malaysia Airlines flight that went missing in 2014 has claimed there was an “intentional effort to cover up what happened”.
Ten years ago, Sarah Bajc woke up to the news that MH370 had disappeared on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
The Boeing 777 had 239 people on board when it disappeared, including her partner Philip Wood.
While satellite data analysis suggested that the plane had likely crashed somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean, off the coast of western Australia, two major searches failed to make any breakthroughs.
Speaking to Sky News on Friday, Ms Bajc said that the last ten years have “been a blink, and it’s also been forever because we still don’t have closure”.
“So even though I’ve moved on with my life, the other family members have all moved on with their lives, the reality is that the story has just stayed open,” she added.
The 58-year-old said she was “certain that there was some intentional effort to cover up what happened” to flight MH370, and added: “Whether the disappearance of the plane was intentional or accidental, I don’t know.
“But it’s absolutely true in my mind that the reason it hasn’t been solved, that the mystery hasn’t been solved, is because somebody doesn’t want us to know what happened.
“Whether that’s to cover up incompetence or bad decision making or an accident or whatever, I don’t know.
“But you can’t have a giant commercial aeroplane full of passengers go totally silent within minutes of taking off.”
Malaysia, Australia and China launched an underwater search which was called off in January 2017. File pic: AP
‘I don’t hold a lot of hope’
Ms Bajc also said she was “delighted” to hear that there are plans to launch new searches for the flight and hopes “we can all put closure to the mystery”.
Anwar Ibrahim, the Malaysian prime minister, said earlier this week that his government is willing to re-open an investigation into the disappearance of MH370 if there was a case to do so.
But Ms Bajc – who now lives in Panama with her husband Ernesto, where they run a beach resort – downplayed the new search.
“The reality is that they had 95% surety that the first targeted zone would have the plane and they didn’t find the plane,” she said.
“I don’t hold a lot of hope because, again, I don’t believe there’s really any hard evidence that points to the plane having gone into the water.
“It was data points that could have easily been fabricated that they’re basing all of that on.”
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239 people were onboard MH370 when it disappeared. File pic: AP
‘Good night, Malaysian three seven zero’
Around 40 minutes after MH370 took off on 8 March 2014, Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah signed off the plane’s last transmission with “good night, Malaysian three seven zero” as they entered Vietnamese air space.
The plane’s transponder was turned off shortly after, meaning it could not be easily tracked.
But military radar showed the plane left its flight path to fly back over northern Malaysia and Penang Island.
It then flew out into the Andaman Sea towards the tip of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, before turning south where all contact was lost.
Malaysia, Australia and China launched an underwater search for the plane, which was called off in January 2017.
US firm Ocean Infinity, contracted by Kuala Lumpur, also carried out a three-month search in 2018 to no avail.
Since 2014, more than 30 pieces of suspected debris have been collected along the coast of Africa and on islands in the Indian Ocean.
Only three wing fragments were confirmed to be from MH370, which have been used in drift pattern analysis.
