Singapore has sent a C130 Hercules aircraft to help in the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, the Republic of Singapore Air Force said in a Facebook post on Saturday afternoon, March 8, 2014. -- PHOTO: FACEBOOK OF THE RSAF
My heart goes out to all families of the passengers on Boeing 777-200. The fact that a love one is missing is bad enough but not knowing what exactly happened somehow just makes everything so much worse.
While everyone hopes the aircraft is found soon, we would think that Singapore would do it's best to help search for this missing air-craft, I feel that this is however not the case. We know that the plane went missing somewhere over the South China Sea near the coast of Vietnam which is a good thing as the sea is more shallow around that region. Since a functioning black box has a signal radius of about 2-3km (quoted maximum) for up to 30days (after which the signal frequency reduces), we would hope to find some remains of the air-craft as soon as possible.
Why isn't Singapore doing it's best to help?
The Straits Times was probably pretty happy to post something like this for the world to see but what most people don't know, is that the C130 Hercules aircraft is a transport air-craft. This simply means that the plane only carries observers with binoculars to search at low altitudes.
Maybe that's the best Singapore can provide?
While many of you would jump up to defend Singapore, saying something is better than nothing, please do not for a second think that Singapore does not have anything better to offer. Since Singapore's defence force has been described as "Second to none" by Defence review Asia, you would think that Singapore should at least have some air-craft that can scan of objects on the sea, such as a submarine periscope... or bits of a wrecked plane. Well.. of course Singapore does.
"Maritime patrol is currently provided by a squadron of five Fokker 50 Enforcers, but the Republic of Singapore Air Force has reportedly expressed recent interest in acquiring several ex-US Navy P-3Cs. Boeing naturally sees Singapore as a future P-8A customer when it comes time to replace the Fokker 50s." - Nigel Pittaway, Defence review Asia.
Why did Singapore not send even one of their 5 Fokker 50 enforcers to search for the missing plane? Compared to the C130 they did send, the Fokker has a good range of 2400km and a reputed radar resolution of 0.5m... WHICH MEANS.... the plane could easily fly to Vietnam, refuel, and fly around the sea searching scanning for objects of 1.5ft in size and above.
So why didn't Singapore send the Fokkers? Surely they can't all be required for duty during this sad time. Or maybe it's because there were no Singaporeans on board the air-craft.
Sylvia Saw Swee Sin
TRS Contributor