Why didn’t radar find Malaysia Airlines plane?

Radar coverage of the area where Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 went missing is patchy and often not even switched on, according to aviation experts.

During the investigation it has emerged that civilian systems do not cover large swatches of the areas the plane could have gone, and that military systems are often left off to save money.

Air traffic control teams rely transponders signals to track planes – but investigators believe that the device was intentionally switched off on the missing aircraft.

Radar coverage of the area where Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 went missing is patchy and often not even switched on

Military systems, meanwhile, are often limited, switched off, or routinely ignore aircraft they do not think are suspicious.

A Rear Admiral in the Indian armed forces, which are aiding search efforts over the Andaman Islands, said: “It’s possible that the military radars were switched off as we operate on an <<as required>> basis.”

However, experts have suggested that a disappearing transponder signal would be treated more seriously over Europe or America, and that a parallel situation would be unlikely to develop.

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