Originally Posted by
Carjockey
@Lonewolf
I cannot agree that this is a non-story. The minute 370 dropped off the ATC radar, major alarm bells should have been ringing. According to this report RMAF began their search at 8.00am; according to earlier reports 370's transponder and other comms were 'turned off' or became disabled around six or seven hours earlier. Why the big delay? If the ATC's, military and civil aviation authorities of neighboring countries had been informed of the situation immediately, the chances of 370's flight path being tracked would have increased dramatically and we would not be faced with the present situation.
To speak figuratively, you're imagining a "totalitarian state", where you should be seeing a patchwork of chiefdoms which grudgingly deal with each other when they have to, but generally don't like each other very much and don't take orders from one another.
This particularly applies to interactions between military and civil aviation authorities. Unless there are specific protocols for dealing with specific emergencies in place, any kind of interaction and any information sharing has to be explicitly authorized by someone high in the chain of command (defense minister cabinet level).
In this paradigm, getting RMAF fighters in the air by 8:00 AM on the night of the disappearance is a lightning quick reaction.