MH370: Four Corners examines what happened

The following are some of the major questions floating in my mind, and I am sure they are shared by many others:

– Why did the Malaysian side initially refuse to hand over the cargo manifest to the Australian investigators? Why did it take so long for the cargo manifest to be released? We still do not know the origins of the lithium-ion batteries and the mangosteens that were supposed to be in the cargo.

– If the RMAF radar showed the plane turning back over the peninsula, why did the search continue at the South China Sea, wasting time and resources?

– Why were the Malaysian military told to merely keep an eye on the plane? and why were jets not scrambled to follow the plane to its destination or force it to land? If MH370’s transponder had been switched off, how did the air force determine that it was a friendly aircraft and not a threat? Why was it allowed to leave Malaysian air space and radar detection? What was the chain of command in issuing the instruction to merely “monitor the plane”? (Hishammuddin’s explanation that the fighter jets were not scrambled because the authorities had no intention of shooting down a plane deemed to be friendly is one of the most ludicrous statements I have heard. Doesn’t he know that air force jets could have escorted the plane to safety or at the very least tracked it to its final destination?)

– Why did the preliminary report fail to examine what happened at the RMAF radar centre in Butterworth and what instructions were issued to them from Putrajaya/KL? Why was the disclosure that the military were told merely to keep an eye on the plane and not to trail it not mentioned in the preliminary report?

– Why was the search and rescue operation launched so late, after many hours had passed?