YOU can only try your best, however when it involves government you might be better off not getting involved.
In this instance, I reflect on my article published in November 2023 titled “A continuing mystery”, which discussed the MH 370 mystery.
Yes, I held a private pilot’s license and yes I was a somewhat inexperienced pilot by years and hours flown.
However, I was highly interested in air safety and as such I was trying to offer governments a view on what they could consider in order to assist them in finding missing aircraft.
Obviously, nothing happened and I probably offended them by daring to propose something of value.
But you guessed it, another tragedy has happened and as I write this opinion piece it has now been five days since this aircraft went missing.
Still its whereabouts have not been located.
This was a privately owned two-seater aircraft on a private flight from Georgetown in Tasmania destined for Leongatha in Victoria for refueling.
It then planned to fly on to Hillston in NSW.
The bright green plane had only been purchased three months ago by the experienced pilot who was in his 70s and a female companion in her 60s.
It is thought to have gone down in the Bass Strait and its whereabouts have not been located.
What I suggested to government was that they could consider mandating the fitment of a “transponder beacon“ to every aircraft being flown in Australian air space so that its location could be known at a moment’s notice.
For a very low cost, this simple device could be used to locate a missing aircraft and save millions of dollars being spent on searching for days, trying to see if they can find the downed plane.
In MH 370’s case, neither our government, Malaysian Airlines nor the number of private experts on this task have been able to even come up with an answer as to where in the world this aircraft disappeared.
A simple locater beacon would have detailed this in a matter of minutes, saving tens of millions of dollars searching.
Even the location of a beacon for the plane was being questioned at the time, but obviously thinking about it, it was all too hard.
My guess is that this will continue to happen again before our air safety authorities and our government do something about the issue.
I challenge them to find a better solution, but please do it soon for everyone’s safety.
By John BLACKBOURN
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