Emirates chief asks why no fighter jet intercepted missing flight MH370

Emirates chief Tim Clark has reportedly questioned why fighter jets did not intercept Malaysia Airlines flight 370 when it veered widely off course, but said he believed the missing plane will be found.

Clark said that more information on the disappearance of the Boeing jet, which was carrying 239 people from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, was needed before the industry changes its aircraft tracking procedures.

The Emirates boss told The Australian Financial Review at an annual airlines conference in Doha that the plane would have been intercepted by military aircraft if it had flown off course over other countries.

“If you were to fly from London to Oslo and then over the North Sea you turned off and then went west to Ireland, within two minutes you’d have Tornadoes, Eurofighters, everything up around you,” he said.

“Even if you did that over Australia and the US, there would be something up. I’m not quite sure where primary radar was in all of this.”

His comments came as the International Air Transport Association conference looked at ways of improving the tracking of aircraft through flight data transmissions or technologies to monitor their movements.