For starters, it does not accept criticisms that the search was in the wrong place, as reported in the media.
It has also rejected a theory that the plane was downed as a result of deliberate actions by MH370’s Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah.
The ATSB has pointed out that it has not needed to determine — and has made no claims — about what might have caused the disappearance of the aircraft.
For search purposes, said ATSB in a statement, the relevant facts and analysis most closely match a scenario in which there was no pilot intervening in the latter stages of the flight. “We have never stated that hypoxia (or any other factor) was the cause of this circumstance,” said the Agency.
The ATSB, in the statement on Monday, said that it wants to correct “the inaccurate information and false assertions”.
It cited in particular an article in The Australian by Byron Bailey, a former pilot. “MH370’s disappearance is not the result of one person taking control of the aircraft.”
The Dutch company Fugro, carrying out the underwater search, has also denied reports attributed to it on the search zone, said the ATSB statement. “The company has denied saying that it may have been looking in the wrong place the last two years for the plane.”
“Fugro wishes to make it very clear that we believe the search area to have been well defined based on all of the available scientific data,” ATSB quoted the company as saying in a statement.
Fugro also said that it “had been thoroughly looking in the most probable place. That’s the right place to search”.
ATSB also dismissed a report that Zaharie plotted a course on his home simulator which shows a route to the southern Indian Ocean. The plot, according to the report, implies “a deliberate planned murder or suicide”.
There’s no evidence to support this claim, the Agency said. “Australian Infrastructure and Transport Minister Darren Chester’s recent statement on the simulator information shows only the possibility of planning.”
“It does not reveal the location of the aircraft.”
The evidence on the aircraft’s location, said ATSB, was based on it’s last satellite communication. “The FBI data only provides a piece of information.”
MH370 disappeared on a routine flight on 8 March 2014 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The ill-fated flight had 239 passengers and crew. The majority of the passengers were from China. There were six Australian nationals and permanent residents on board.
It’s known that the aircraft stopped short of Vietnam in the Gulf of Siam and turned around without informing any air traffic control in the region.
The Malaysian Air Force tracked the aircraft on radar, across the peninsula, and flying over Pulau Pangkor in the Straits of Malacca. It was last reported rounding the northern tip of Sumatra.
Thereafter, the whereabouts of the aircraft remain a great mystery despite “pings” (signals) from satellite.
All the MH370-related debris which washed ashore so far have been in the western Indian Ocean. The finds have been along the coast from South Africa to as far north as Tanzania, and on islands like Madagascar, the French Reunion and Mauritius.
The 120,000 sq km search zone is in the 7th Arc in the southern Indian Ocean, southwest of Australia. Bad weather has held up the search in the last remaining patch of 10,000 sq km.