SHAH ALAM, 2 Apr: The former Perlis Mufti, Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin, said that reading how foreign countries sent submarines to help find the MH370 aircraft, he felt how wonderful it would be if Malaysia too had submarines that could function well.
Dr Asri said that various issues on the country’s submarines have been heard, including the purchase of the French Scorpene Submarine which was estimated to cost USD580 million.
“In a situation like this, wouldn’t it be wonderful if it could provide some contribution that corresponds to its expensive price,” wrote Dr Asri on his Facebook page.
He said that although some say it is not right because it is not owned by our ‘neighbour’, but the reply does not provide pride to the nation.
Prior to this, the British Trafalgar-class Submarine, HMS Tireless, arrived in the southern Indian Ocean as the mission to find the missing Malaysian aircraft entered its 26th day today.
The British Government is also helping by lending experts to provide technical assistance and expertise capacity from the Ministry of Defence, Hydrographic Office, Department of Transportation and the Meteorological Office to help locate the aircraft.
The MH370 aircraft which was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members, disappeared from the radar while it was in the area of the South China Sea on 8 March, about an hour after taking off from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 12.41am. The aircraft was supposed to land in Beijing at 6.30am the same day.
The search mission for the aircraft involves many countries, initially in the South China Sea and then – after the aircraft was found to have veered away from the path – along two corridors, the north corridor from the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan until north of Thailand and the south corridor from Indonesia until the south Indian Ocean.
Following the analysis results of data from the British Inmarsat telecommunications satellite and the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), it has been concluded that the MH370 aircraft flew along the southern corridor and its final position was in the middle of the Indian Ocean, west of Perth, Australia.
