Several U.S. lawmakers on Sunday panned the Malaysian government's role in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, accusing the Malaysians of withholding information and bungling the crucial early days of the search.
"I think across the board people are looking for more in the way of openness from the Malaysian government in terms of sharing the information they have in a timely manner," said Rep. Patrick Meehan, R-Pa., on CNN.
He cited reports of "frustration" among U.S. officials about their level of coordination with their Malaysian counterparts.
"We're invited in only a little bit," he said.
Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, said the Malaysian government squandered the early days of the search looking for the plane in Central Asia when it was likely to be found in the southern Indian Ocean .
"I think the Malaysian government spent way too much time focusing on the northern routes and the Gulf of Thailand and Kazakhstan," he said on "Fox News Sunday." "It would have been picked up by radar and we knew that. And I know satellite imagery given to the Malaysians established that, but we wasted a week of precious time up in that region when all along it's been in southern Indian Ocean, I think is where the location is."
CBS News Aviation and Safety Expert Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger said on "Face the Nation" that some "missteps" early in the investigation have impaired the search effort.
"Here we are...into the third week of the investigation and just now beginning to re-narrow the search to areas that are still as large as the United States," he said.
The White House, though, has touted an unprecedented level of international coordination in the search for the missing plane, which disappeared over two weeks ago.
"The one encouraging thing, I would say, if there's anything encouraging in a tragedy like this, is you have countries working together in ways that they haven't before," said Deputy National Security Advisor Tony Blinken Sunday on CNN. "Not just the Malaysians, but we have the South Koreans, the Chinese, the Australians, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, all working in the same direction, which is to get to the bottom of what happened."
Blinken said there's "no prevailing theory" about what might have happened to the flight.
"We're chasing down every theory, we're looking at facts as they develop," he said, "but, again, the bottom line is we can't get ahead of the facts."
McCaul said the evidence suggests the incident was probably a "deliberate attack," and that investigators haven't ruled out the possibility that it was an act of terror.
据美国哥伦比亚广播公司报道，多名美国议员23日抨击了马来西亚政府在搜寻马来西亚航空公司MH370航班过程中的失误，指责马方隐瞒信息，贻误时机。
“我认为大家都希望马方能够更公开更及时地分享信息。”众议员帕特里克·米汉在美国有线电视新闻网上说。
他提及美方官员对马方合作感到失望的报道。
“我们参与的完全不够”，他说。
众议院国土安全委员会主席迈克尔·麦考尔说最有可能发现航班的地方是南印度洋，而马来西亚却将搜寻工作的最初几天浪费在了北部。
“我认为马来西亚将太多时间花费在了北部线路、泰国湾和哈萨克斯坦，如果正如他们所想，我相信航班会被雷达捕捉到的。发给马来西亚的卫星图像也证明了如此，而我们却将一周时间浪费在了那些地方。自始至终航班都在南印度洋，我相信飞机就在那里，”他在接受福克斯新闻采访时说。
美国哥伦比亚广播公司的航空安全专家切斯利·萨林伯格在“面对全国”节目上说调查早期的“失误”让搜寻努力大打折扣。
“现在已经进入搜寻工作的第三周，但我们才刚开始重新缩小搜寻区域，但依然与美国面积相当。”他说。
但白宫对搜索失联航班中史无前例的国际协作也予以称赞。
“让人受鼓舞的一件事情是，我认为，如果说在这样一场悲剧中有什么让我们鼓舞的事情，那就是有这么多的国家团结在一起解决问题，这在过去是没有的。不止是马来西亚，还有韩国、中国、澳大利亚、新西兰、美国和加拿大，都在劲往一处使，弄清楚到底发生了什么。”美国国家安全顾问托尼·布林肯23日对美国有线新闻网如是说。
布林肯说关于航班可能遭遇了什么，现在并没有“普遍认同的解释”。
"我们在思考每一种解释，随着事情进展我们也在着眼事实。但是前提是我们不能超前于事实。"他说。
麦考尔说证据表明这很有可能是一起“蓄意攻击”，调查员也并没有排除恐怖袭击的可能性。
