Malaysia's military radar detected what could have been the jetliner
missing since Saturday in an area in the northern Malacca Strait,
hundreds of miles from the spot where the plane dropped off air traffic
screens, the air force chief said on Wednesday.
Rodzali Daud told a news conference that the tracking was at 2:15 a.m. local time on Saturday, about 45 minutes after the plane with 239 people on board vanished from air traffic control screens midway between Malaysia's east coast and Vietnam.
He said the radar tracking was at a point 200 miles (320 miles) northwest of Penang island on Malaysia's west coast.
Bur Rodzali stressed that the information needed to be corroborated.
In a statement, an official said the search would be put on hold as Vietnam awaited a potential new direction of the multi-national hunt to be clarified by Malaysia.
“We've decided to temporarily suspend some search and rescue activities, pending information from Malaysia,” deputy minister of transport Pham Quy Tieu said, adding a sea search was still ongoing, but on a smaller scale.
Meanwhile, Malaysia announced on Wednesday that the search for the missing airliner has been expanded into the Andaman Sea, hundreds of kilometers to the northwest of the original search radius.
“Yes, above Sumatra is the Andaman Sea,” he told Agence France-Presse, when asked to confirm whether assets were being deployed in the Andaman Sea. “It's a very big area to cover... We are not going to leave any chance. We have to look at every possibility.”
Sumatra is a large Indonesian island south of the Andaman Sea. The body of water is off Thailand's west coast.
Authorities have expanded the search after earlier citing radar data they said indicates a “possibility” the plane may have changed course from its intended flight path over the South China Sea.
Officials have yet to provide any further clarification on the radar data they referred to.
Authorities have been searching since Saturday in the South China Sea between Malaysia and Vietnam.
The effort has found no trace of the plane, sparking one of the greatest aviation mysteries in memory.
Fears of terrorism were stoked by the weekend revelation that two men boarded the flight using stolen European passports. But police said people-smuggling was emerging as the likeliest explanation for the identity fraud.
Flight MH370 went missing early Saturday with 239 people on board en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, sparking a massive search across Southeast Asia.
Authorities have doubled the search radius to 100 nautical miles around the point where flight MH370 disappeared from radar over the South China Sea.
Malaysian civil aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said ships and planes were now also searching in the southern part of the Andaman Sea.
(With Reuters, AFP)
Rodzali Daud told a news conference that the tracking was at 2:15 a.m. local time on Saturday, about 45 minutes after the plane with 239 people on board vanished from air traffic control screens midway between Malaysia's east coast and Vietnam.
He said the radar tracking was at a point 200 miles (320 miles) northwest of Penang island on Malaysia's west coast.
Bur Rodzali stressed that the information needed to be corroborated.
Vietnam suspends search
Meanwhile, Vietnam’s air search for missing Malaysia airlines flight MH370 was suspended, Vietnamese authorities said on Wednesday.In a statement, an official said the search would be put on hold as Vietnam awaited a potential new direction of the multi-national hunt to be clarified by Malaysia.
“We've decided to temporarily suspend some search and rescue activities, pending information from Malaysia,” deputy minister of transport Pham Quy Tieu said, adding a sea search was still ongoing, but on a smaller scale.
Meanwhile, Malaysia announced on Wednesday that the search for the missing airliner has been expanded into the Andaman Sea, hundreds of kilometers to the northwest of the original search radius.
“Yes, above Sumatra is the Andaman Sea,” he told Agence France-Presse, when asked to confirm whether assets were being deployed in the Andaman Sea. “It's a very big area to cover... We are not going to leave any chance. We have to look at every possibility.”
Sumatra is a large Indonesian island south of the Andaman Sea. The body of water is off Thailand's west coast.
Authorities have expanded the search after earlier citing radar data they said indicates a “possibility” the plane may have changed course from its intended flight path over the South China Sea.
Officials have yet to provide any further clarification on the radar data they referred to.
Authorities have been searching since Saturday in the South China Sea between Malaysia and Vietnam.
The effort has found no trace of the plane, sparking one of the greatest aviation mysteries in memory.
Fears of terrorism were stoked by the weekend revelation that two men boarded the flight using stolen European passports. But police said people-smuggling was emerging as the likeliest explanation for the identity fraud.
Flight MH370 went missing early Saturday with 239 people on board en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, sparking a massive search across Southeast Asia.
Authorities have doubled the search radius to 100 nautical miles around the point where flight MH370 disappeared from radar over the South China Sea.
Malaysian civil aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said ships and planes were now also searching in the southern part of the Andaman Sea.
(With Reuters, AFP)
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