The missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH 370 of 8 May 2014 is not only a technical mystery, but demonstrates several weaknesses of the current technical, regulatory and organizational infrastructure of international civil aviation. Safety critical communication connectivity is not global and as seamless as generally perceived, neither are air traffic services. The disappearance of MH 370 was an event that did not fit the regulatory pattern of search and rescue and therefore put a strain on international cooperation of States, from the political to the working levels. This article discusses the difficulties of managing search and rescue, accident investigation, civil-military cooperation and CNS-ATM shortcomings within the international legal framework.
Air and Space Law