Missing jet: US expresses frustration at Malaysia’s handling of the investigation

Some officials of the United States of America have expressed frustration at Malaysia’s handling of the investigation of the missing Airlines flight MH370.
Two US security officials said the Malaysian government still had not invited the Federal Bureau of Investigation to send a team to Kuala Lumpur.
They said the FBI, which has extensive experience in investigating airplane crashes, and other US law enforcement agencies had indicated their eagerness to send teams to Kuala Lumpur.
They said they would not do so unless formally invited.
But in spite of this, the Malaysian government had not considered the offer.
They said this had become imperative because the police and a multi-national investigation team might never know for sure what happened in the cockpit unless they found the plane, and that in itself was a daunting challenge.
The diplomatic notes of Hishammuddin Hussein, Malaysia’s Transport Minister, had been sent to all countries along the northern and southern search corridors, requesting radar and satellite information as well as land, sea and air search operations.
Hussein said the search was covering a 7.68 million square kilometres and so many countries have come forward to offer assistance and support to the search and rescue operation.
Hussein said the Malaysian Navy and Air Force were also searching the southern corridor and US P-8A Poseidon surveillance aircraft were being sent to Perth, in Western Australia, to help scour the ocean.
Taliban militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan, aviation officials in Pakistan, India and Central Asian countries of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, said they knew nothing about the whereabouts of the plane.
China, which has been vocal in its impatience with Malaysian efforts to find the plane, called on its smaller neighbour to immediately expand and clarify the scope of the search.
About two-thirds of the passengers aboard MH370 were Chinese.
Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, said he had spoken to his Malaysian counterpart, Najib Razak, by telephone, and had offered more surveillance resources in addition to the two P-3C Orion aircraft his country has already committed.
Meanwhile, the Cambodian government on Tuesday sent four helicopters and two ships to search on its sea for the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370.
A press statement by the Ministry of Defence said that at the initial stage, the Navy and the Air Force have dispatched four Z-9 utility helicopters and two P46 ships as well as some armed forces to search at islands and maritime space near the Vietnamese border.
It said government has also ordered all armed forces stationed at all islands in the Cambodian sea to help search for any suspicious objects relevant to the missing jet.
The Ministry of Defence vowed to actively join with other countries to search for the missing jetliner.
It expressed its readiness to help facilitate and support the China-Malaysia search and rescue team if they are willing to come to Cambodia for further search or investigation.
The ministry also extended deep sympathy and condolences to the family members of the passengers aboard the missing plane.
Hussein said that the number of countries involved in the search and rescue operation had risen to 26.
PANA/Xinhua/NAN.