Ex B773 Emirates pilot Byron Bailey has again contributed a media piece, this time on page 19 of the 'Inquirer' section of the Saturday 14 - Sunday 15 May 2016 'The Weekend Australian.'
It is likely to be fairly similar to what he has previously written; one AFF pilot contributor has previously said that he does not agree with Mr Bailey's assertions.
Because the article is protected by a paywall, bear with me as I repeat and paraphrase small parts of the article:
'..the search appears to have been conducted in the wrong area..if...(pilot) Shah was trying to hide his aircraft...he would endeavour to fly as far as possible before the fuel ran out...this is how I would manage this...'
Mr Bailey then goes on to say that he would fly at mach 0.83 as high as possible; as the first engine 'flamed out' he would start a slow speed 220 knots indicated airspeed descent - second engine at idle. Then select flap just before second engine flamed out, ensuring that he still had hydraulic pressure to minimise debris in the sea. At 5000 feet, fly into the wind and ditch at as low a speed as possible, which would still be above 250 kilometres an hour.'
That is a precis; I have omitted a bit of other technical detail.
Mr Bailey concludes that he cannot answer why the ATSB did not listen to experts (as opposed to what he terms armchair 'aviation consultants') who would have placed the search area at least 400 kilometres further south and west (compared with the area that was expensively searched.) He says that this is why MH370 has not been found.
The article is because the search is to be terminated next month. If I recall, hundreds of millions of dollars of Australian taxpayers' funds have been expended - Mr Bailey would assert that this has been to little effect.
These questions are highly technical and those of us like me who are laymen cannot have an opinion as to which area ought to have been prioritised for the airborne and seaborne searches, except to note that at this stage the results have been unsatisfactory for investigators and especially for relatives of the deceased who presumably want answers so that (to use that awful USA word) 'closure' can occur.
Notably, Mr Bailey allegedly has many thousands of flying hours on B777s.
