VietNamNet Bridge - "This is a serious and mysterious incident. This is a Malaysian aircraft so this country should have been a focal point in providing information. Yet, Malaysia has not been actively cooperating with Vietnam since the incident occurred," said Deputy Minister of Transport Pham Quy Tieu in an interview with Dan Tri newspaper.

Deputy Minister of Transport Pham Quy Tieu.

What do you think about the cooperation of Malaysia in search of its missing aircraft over the last few days?

I do not know what the reasons are, but honestly, Malaysia has not actively cooperated with Vietnam.

Vietnam has always announced everything that we have found and has always exerted great efforts in the search for the Malaysian plane. Even at the time of preparation for transferring control to the HCM City Air Control Center, when the signals from that plane were lost, we immediately activated the primary radar system to search for it and informed the Malaysian aviation authorities, but they did not answer.

During the search, upon the discovery of new signs, Malaysia did not provide sufficient new information to Vietnam. That is a Malaysian aircraft so Malaysia should have been a focal point to provide information, but Malaysia has not actively cooperated with Vietnam since the incident occurred.

About the information that the Malaysian military detected radar signals from the missing plane, do you think that it is reliable information?

We are very interested in this information. This morning the Malaysian military attaché replied about the signals of the missing plane in Malacca to the National Committee for Search and Rescue of Vietnam. However, the Vietnam Civil Aviation Administration has not received the official answer from the Malaysian Aviation Administration yet and we're still waiting for official information from the Malaysian authorities.

Until now (6pm on March 13), although the director of the Vietnam Civil Aviation Administration had asked for the answer from Malaysia twice, they have not replied yet. Therefore, I asked the Vietnam Civil Aviation Administration to continue asking for Malaysia’s answer. We need an official answer of the Malaysian aviation authorities.

Today (March 12) Malaysia did not search in the planned search area. Did they inform Vietnam about this change?

Yesterday Malaysia planned to fly together with the U.S. and Singapore in the region where the plane disappeared from the radar screen, but today Malaysian aircraft did not fly in this region and they did not inform Vietnam about it. This country also does not have a search plan for tomorrow.

After five days of searching, what do you think about the case?

First of all, this is a serious and very mysterious case. Even aircraft manufacturer Boeing could not explain why. The Boeing 777 is a great aircraft, using modern technology and besides aviation surveillance, there are also satellites but there are not any traces of the missing aircraft.

If the aircraft crashed into the sea, it would have left at least fragments. As seen in the aviation perspective, if the plane exploded in the air, it would have created a fireball, which could have been seen by someone because there are a lot of fishing boats in this region.

This morning, the Malaysian government sent representatives to participate in a press conference in Beijing (China) about this case, which prompted the last message of the MH370 flight crew - "Well, goodnight". Do you know about this?

Malaysia did not inform Vietnam about that message, but that was the contact between the flight crew with Malaysian air controllers before handing over control to fly into the Vietnam’s airspace. And at that time, the Ho Chi Minh ACC did not contact with the flight crew of the plane.

There is information that before it disappeared, the plane reported twice about technical problems, do you know this?

We have never received any official information from the Malaysian authorities.

If Malaysia continues to not actively cooperate with Vietnam, what should we do?

We still ask the Malaysian authorities to provide related information. The search will depend on the requirements from Malaysia and the provisions of international search and rescue rules, but this work will be restricted.

If we cannot find the missing aircraft in the coming days, how will the search plan change?

We cannot do the search forever in such a situation. If there are no new signs, at an appropriate time we will reach agreement with the authorities to stop the search.

Dan Tri