King: Malaysian officials ‘dropped the ball’

Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) says Malaysian authorities have “dropped the ball at every level” in the search for a missing jetliner. 

King was asked in an interview on CNN on Tuesday if he had confidence in Malaysian authorities.

“No. So far they seem to have dropped the ball at every level. And I hate to be, you know, the Monday morning quarterback, but it appears as if they’ve done nothing right so far. Even if the Navy was told about it yesterday, that’s 48 hours after the fact. To me, every minute counts here,” King said.

{mosads}The search for the missing flight entered its fifth day on Wednesday as search crews have failed to recover any evidence of the Malaysia Airlines plane.

Over the last day, the search has expanded to the other side of Malaysia after some officials said the plane might have turned around on its route to Beijing.

“And that was such a key point, that the plane actually reversed course and was flying back over Malaysia toward Indonesia,” King said. “I mean, why wasn’t that made known? Why weren’t jets scrambling? Why wasn’t an alert put out on that immediately once they realized that was happening?” 

King said he had heard reports of the pilots having “erratic behavior” on previous flights in which they invited passengers into the cockpit.

Asked if pilot suicide could have brought the plane down, King said “that has to be considered,” but added that’s just “one of many theories.”