M'sia slams authors of book
Published on: Monday, September 22, 2014
Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia Airlines (MAS) slammed the authors of a book which claimed to offer the "inside" scoop on what really happened to flight MH370.In a statement, MAS said it was appalled at the claims that MH370's Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah intentionally turned off the oxygen supply in the cabin. The authors claimed that Zaharie then activated the auto-pilot feature which led to the disappearance of MH370 on March 8. These claims were made in the book "Goodnight Malaysian 370", penned by New Zealand broadcast journalists Geoff Taylor and Ewan Wilson.MAS noted that Wilson, the disgraced former chief executive officer of the short-lived and defunct Kiwi Travel International Airlines, had previously been convicted of fraud. "There is no evidence to support any of the claims made in the book, which is a product of pure conjecture for the purposes of profit by the authors and publishers.
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"Neither Wilson nor Taylor were involved in the investigation into the disappearance of MH370, yet they have offered an analysis beyond their knowledge and abilities."They should both be ashamed of themselves for what is nothing more than a cheap and maligned publicity stunt," MAS said.MAS added that Wilson and Taylor were seeking to cash in on the suffering of the families and undermining the dignity of the 12 crew members and 227 passengers aboard MH370. The national carrier also said it would not tolerate baseless allegations made against it.
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"Those that publish, distribute, disseminate and perpetuate misinformation and falsehoods should be aware that MAS will not hesitate to take legal action to protect its position."On a separate issue, MAS also took umbrage at an article by web portal worldnewsdaily.con entitled "Malaysia Airlines flight forced into emergency landing after flying over Icelandic".
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"MAS is disappointed that such irresponsible and amateurish reporting was not only approved by the news portal's editors, but also published."The airline called on the public not to be fooled by such blatant lies and falsehoods, saying that the author's claims bordered on malicious absurdity.The carrier pointed out that the article had claimed the MH131 from Paris to New York was a Boeing 777, while in actual fact, the Kuala Lumpur/Paris/Kuala Lumpur sector utilised A380 aircraft."Given recent tragedies of MH370 and MH17, MAS believes that such stories only serve one purpose, that is to fuel conjecture, misunderstanding and instill fear among the travelling public."Whatever the motive behind the story, it does not represent the ethos of ethical and factual journalism," MAS said.MAS condemned the story as well as irresponsible "news portals" and urged the authorities to block the site worldnewsdaily.com.MH370 departed from Kuala Lumpur on March 8 bound for Beijing but disappeared shortly after taking off.The biggest and most expensive search and rescue operations in aviation history has failed to reveal any clues to the missing aircraft's whereabouts.On July 17, flight MH17 departed from Amsterdam bound for Kuala Lumpur with 15 crew members and 283 passengers.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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