so, they had to have a plan. i mean, these people had to have some kind of an operation in mind. they re probably not stupid. no one has really talked about who was on that plane. you know, was there anyone of any significance from the chinese government, a high ranking government official or was the cargo was on that plane. we re kind of guessing, was it terrorism, but you ve got a lot of experience in this area. are the malaysians a little behind? i think so. there would be a manifest for the cargo, but even with we weren t sure. that stuff isn t checked. if it comes from a reliable freight border. we have a clue what s in those boxes. i m sure over there, who knows what s in the belly of that plane. that s kind of farfetched, but could be they wanted something on the plane. i don t give a whole lot of
been on several boards of inqui inquiry. everything about what we originally thought is now in question. and the orangeal thinking that this plane probably was involved in some kind of catastrophic disaster and went into the water is now the case anymore. no one believes that anymore, but we now know that the aircraft is pinging for seven hours after it last lost contact with after it made communication. what do you think happened to this plane? just to pick up on 43 countries, 53 aircraft, this is a huge man hunt. i ve been on two boards of inquiry, flown over 20 careyeard have never seen anything like this. the points you raise are really valid in terms of where is this
it would in a western or european airline. malaysian air, you know, who knows what they re doing. these are guys that let people into the cockpit that automatic flight deck door that locks automatically, people come and go all the time in there. their standards are a lot more lax than ours are. i m not saying this is probable, but it s possible. what about when we talk about someone getting into the cockpit? we both know the cockpit in a 777, one of the safest aircrafts in the air is incredibly robust and strong and all that stuff. but is there an automatic lock on that door, every one of these planes, does it depend on the country that the plane is sold to? of course it can be locked
clearly, we have the best capabilities of anyone in the world to get information and to call something like this. why did we hang back? all three of those are good points. international air traffic is critical to commerce. i think the ice really had enormous interest and i think the administration for fear of acknowledging that perhaps it was a terrorist, that perhaps it involved islamic terrorists, drew back and at the top levels, just did not want to give the impression this is as serious as it may turn out to be. what about the theory that the plane went down and there was a catastrophic event? i know you re not a pilot, ambassador, but i believe it was reported in the new york times that the malaysian military knew that or got radar from this
something was up here and the first folks you would look at were the people in the cockpit piloting the plane. i think it s pretty disgraceful the way the malaysians have handled. this seems like every angle but a hijacking or terrorism. if they want to avoid getting egg on their face, too late, because it s there. the pilot should have been investigated immediately and apparently, the two guys, the fbi says oh, they re not a problem either. now, we know this is a criminal investigation. something was going on. just give us an idea of terrorism in that area. most of the passengers on board with chinese. the malaysian airlines, what s going on here? there is a history in southeast asia of number one al-qaeda involvement. in 2000 in kuala lumpur, we saw