Vietnam defends its role in Flight 370 case

Malaysia Airlines' plane

In a report into the disappearance of MH370 and to explain a 4-hour delay before the official search for the plane was launched, the Malaysian Department of Civil Aviation on May 2 said that Vietnamese Air Traffic Controllers (ATC) breached protocol by taking 17 minutes instead of five to let Malaysian controllers know that it had lost contact with the plane.

Lai Xuan Thanh, Director of Vietnam Civil Aviation Administration, in an interview with Dtinews on May 4, admitted their fault for the delay, saying they would learn from the incident. Thanh said, aside from being slow to contact Malaysian controllers, all procedures had been followed. 

He said, "After realising that we had lost contact with MH370, controllers in HCM City used an emergency frequency, asked other planes to try to contact MH370 and asked for help from nearby air traffic control centres." Thanh went on to say that a 12-minute delay did not have much impact on the outcome because it took 4 hours for Malaysian agencies to begin the search.

As agreed between Vietnam and Malaysia, controllers in Vietnam were scheduled to monitor Flight 370 beginning at 5:22pm UTC but the plane disappeared off radar at 5:20:43pm UTC. Moreover, there is no evidence showing that the plane ever passed the navigational waypoint after which Vietnamese controllers were responsible for tracking it. "We hadn't been able to make contact or start to monitor this plane," he said.

The International Civil Aviation Organisation's rules state that if a plane goes missing at the border, the responsibility will fall on country that made last contact. Thanh said they would send requests to Malaysian officials asking them to provide more information and give clearer explanation.

On March 8, the Malaysia Airlines flight 370 suddenly dropped off the radar with no distress signal or indications of trouble. The plane was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members. A massive search with help from dozens countries was carried out but no plane or debris have been found.