Investigations into the mystery of the missing Malaysian jet appeared to be at a deadlock on Wednesday, with an exhaustive background search of the passengers and crew showing nothing untoward and no sign that the plane could be quickly found.
Eleven days have passed since Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 went missing, and 26 nations are struggling to search for the airliner over an area roughly the size of Australia, or more than two-thirds the size of the United States.
Malaysia's top official in charge of the unprecedented operation said it was vital to reduce the scale of the task and renewed appeals for sensitive military data from its neighbours that Malaysia believes may shed light on the airliner's fate.
"All the efforts must be used to actually narrow the corridors that we have announced - I think that is the best approach to do it. Otherwise we are in the realm of speculation again," Malaysia's Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters late yesterday.
Ten days after a Malaysian jetliner disappeared, Thailand's military said it saw radar blips that might have been from the missing plane but didn't report it "because we did not pay attention to it".
Search crews from 26 countries, including Thailand, are looking for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which vanished early March 8 with 239 people aboard en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Frustration is growing among relatives of those on the plane at the lack of progress in the search.
Aircraft and ships are scouring two giant arcs of territory amounting to the size of Australia - half of it in the remote seas of the southern Indian Ocean.
When asked why it took so long to release the information, Mr Montol said, "Because we did not pay any attention to it. The Royal Thai Air Force only looks after any threats against our country."
He said the plane never entered Thai airspace and that Malaysia's initial request for information in the early days of the search was not specific, according to the Press Association.
Investigators examining disappearance of the plane believe it most likely that the plane flew into the southern Indian Ocean, a source close to the investigation said today.
They said: "The working assumption is that it went south, and furthermore that it went to the southern end of that corridor.
The area refers to a stretch of water from west of Indonesia to the Indian Ocean west of Australia.
People living in the Maldives claim to have seen a "low flying jet" going over one of the islands on the morning of the disappearance of flight MH370.
Local website Haveeru said yesterday that several residents report the sighting at around 6.15am on March 8.
They said that it was a white aircraft, with red stripes across it – which would roughly match a Malaysia Airlines aircraft.
"I've never seen a jet flying so low over our island before. We've seen seaplanes, but I'm sure that this was not one of those. I could even make out the doors on the plane clearly," said an eyewitness.
"It's not just me either, several other residents have reported seeing the exact same thing. Some people got out of their houses to see what was causing the tremendous noise too."
China today said it had not yet found any sign of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight in its territory.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei today said the country would continue to search but no evidence suggested it had crossed the country's airspace.
Here's an interesting map that shows the radar coverage of the Royal Thai Air Force.
RTAF air defense coverage from Straits of Malacca to Northern Thailand. Assuming 240nm range #MH370pic.twitter.com/JCdn2ru7js
— Alert 5 (@alert5) March 19, 2014
The daughter of chief air steward Andrew Nari posted this message at the weekend as Liverpool beat Manchester United 3-0.
Daddy, Liverpool is winning the game. Come home, so you can watch the game! You never miss watching the game. It's your very first time. :')
A retired U.S. Air Force General says he believes the missing flight could have landed in Pakistan.
General Thomas McInerney said that the reaction of the U.S. and Israel to the possibility of a hijacking suggested authorities know more than they were letting on.
He told Hannity on Fox News: "I could envision that terrorists could use it, fill it up with explosives, attack a U.S. aircraft carrier, put a nuclear weapon – a prototype on it – hit Israel [or] the United States.”
Speaking about how he came to his conclusion, he later added: "First of all, let me say, when the U.S. Navy quits their search (their ship search) they must know something in the Indian Ocean.
"When the Israeli Defence Forces, when they incr
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