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12 Mar 2014

Malaysia radar ‘detects last sighting of plane’

Malaysia’s military chief says a radar detection in the Malacca Strait – off the west coast of Malaysia – could be that of the missing aircraft.

The search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which vanished on Saturday, was expanded further into the Andaman and south China seas on Wednesday.

After a series of at times conflicting statements, the latest revelation underlined that authorities remain uncertain even where to look for the plane.

‘Military radar’

The flight disappeared from civilian radar screens shortly before 1.30am on Saturday, less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur, as it flew northeast across the mouth of the Gulf of Thailand bound for Beijing.

Malaysian air force chief Rodzali Daud told a news conference that an aircraft was plotted on military radar at 2.15am, 200 miles northwest of Penang island off Malaysia’s west coast.

It was not confirmed that the unidentified plane was Flight MH370, but Malaysia was sharing the data with international civilian and military authorities, Mr Daud said.

“We are corroborating this,” he added. “We are still working with the experts, it’s an unidentified plot.”

According to the data from Mr Daud, if it was the missing plane it would have flown for 45 minutes and lost only about 5,000 feet in altitude.

There was no word on which direction it was headed and still no clue what happened aboard, prolonging the agonising wait for news for hundreds of relatives of those on board.

A position 200 miles northwest of Penang, in the northern part of the Strait of Malacca, would put the plane roughly south of the Thai holiday island of Phuket and east of the tip of Indonesia’s Aceh province and India’s Nicobar island chain.

Indonesia and Thailand have said their militaries detected no sign of any unusual aircraft in their airspace.

The position is hundreds of miles west of the point where the Boeing 777-200ER dropped off air traffic control screens. Malaysia has asked India for help in tracing the aircraft and New Delhi’s coastguard planes have joined the search.

‘We have nothing to hide’

Authorities however are continuing to search around both locations – at the last known position of the plane over the Gulf of Thailand and around the radar plotting site where the Malacca Strait meets the Andaman sea.

Malaysia has been criticised for giving conflicting and confusing information on the last known location of the aircraft. However, officials hit back at a press conference on Wednesday to defend their handling of the search.

Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, told reporters: “We have nothing to hide. I believe it is important to get you guys (the media) informed (on the latest developments).”

In total, the search is over 27,000 square nautical miles, an area the size of Hungary or Indiana. Until now, there has been no confirmed sighting of the plane or any debris.

Meanwhile a senior Malaysia Airlines’ executive said that the airline has “no reason to believe,” that any actions by the crew caused the disappearance of a jetliner over the weekend.

Hugh Dunleavy, the commercial director of Malaysia Airlines, said the captain in charge of the flight was a very seasoned pilot with an “excellent record”.

He said: “There have been absolutely no indications as far as we are aware of that there was anything untoward in either his behaviour or attitude. we are aware of that there was anything untoward in either his behaviour or attitude.

“And quite honestly, the plane was flying, after takeoff, reached cruising altitude, it was cruising in that state for some time, before it suddenly disappeared from radar. We have no reason to believe that there was anything, any actions, internally by the crew that caused the disappearance of this aircraft.”

The relatives, who have been staying at hotels near a Beijing airport since the plane went missing on Saturday, have angrily accused the airline of keeping them in the dark.

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