Malaysia confirms it has new radar data on missing plane flying over another country (but won't say where for security reasons)

• Malaysia says it has 'some radar data' on missing flight MH370
• Officials say they are 'not at liberty' to release data from other countries
• Relatives of missing stormed press conference where news was revealed
• Distressed family held up banners saying government had 'let them down'
• Pilot had programmed a remote island into his home flight simulator
• FBI to help analyse any electronic files deleted from the simulator
• Search is now underway involving 26 countries in two search 'corridors'
• Officials are focusing search on area in southern Indian Ocean
• They dismissed previous claims plane was spotted over the Maldives

Daily Mail (UK) | 19 March 2014

Malaysian officials have confirmed they have received 'some radar data' from other countries about the missing Flight MH370 today - but claimed they were 'not at liberty' to release the information.

Speaking at a press conference this afternoon, acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said Malaysia was continuing to co-ordinate the search for the missing Boeing 777-200ER.

Confirming other countries were to take the lead on the search in other areas, he added: 'I can confirm that we have received some radar data, but we are not at liberty to release information from other countries. 

'I appeal to all our partners to continue volunteering any and all information that could help with the investigation and the search for MH370.'

Hishammuddin Hussein (centre) told a news conference Malaysia had received 'some radar data' but were 'not at liberty' to release information from other countries

Distraught family members of the missing passengers were removed from the press conference earlier today.

Moments before officials spoke to the media, half a dozen furious relatives stormed the conference - blaming the Malaysian government of failing to work hard enough to find the plane.

 

The group had banners - most which which blamed the government of inaction - as airline officials desperately tried to resume order.

In dramatic scenes, one woman shouted: 'You are traitors to us... you have let us down. Tell us the truth! We want the truth!'

It was reported today the pilot of the missing plane had programmed a remote island in the middle of the Indian Ocean with a runway long enough to land a Boeing 777 into his home flight simulator.

A U.S. official said today the Malaysian government is seeking the FBI's help in analyzing any electronic files deleted last month from the home flight simulator of the pilot of the missing Malaysian plane. 

The official, speaking anonymously, said the FBI has been provided electronic data to analyze. 

Malaysia's defense minister said in the day investigators were trying to restore files deleted last month from the home simulator used by the pilot, Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah, to see if they shed any light on the disappearance.

Files containing records of simulations carried out on the program were deleted February 3. 

At a news conference Wednesday, Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters: 'I don't think we have any theories' about what happened to the plane. 

However, he said the FBI has been in touch with Malaysian investigators about providing any help that it can. 

'We are in ongoing conversations about how we can help and we will make available whatever resources that we have, whatever expertise we have, that might be able to be used,' Holder said. 

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 with 239 people aboard disappeared March 8 on a night flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. 

No wreckage has been found from the flight. It is now 12 days after it vanished from air traffic control screens off Malaysia's east coast at 1:21am local time.

An unprecedented search for the plane is under way involving 26 nations in two vast search 'corridors'.

One of the corridors arches north overland from Laos towards the Caspian Sea, while the other curves south across the Indian Ocean from west of Indonesia's Sumatra island to west of Australia.

A leading aviation expert yesterday suggested Asian military officials may be staging a mass cover-up because they do not want to expose gaping holes within their countries' air defences.

 

The jet went missing 1.30am but it wasn't until the following Tuesday that the Malaysian Air Force reported they had spotted the aircraft on radar over the Strait of Malacca at 2.15am.

Thailand's military yesterday said they detected a plane at 1.28am, eight minutes after MH370's communications went down, heading towards the Strait but did not share the information because they were not asked for it.

Writing on his blog, aviation expert David Learmount said: 'Maybe these states’ air defences, like Malaysia’s, are not what they are cracked up to be.

Thai military yesterday said they picked up an unidentified aircraft on radar bearing off the flight path, heading left over Malaysia and towards the Strait of Malacca

'And maybe they wouldn’t want the rest of the world to know that.'
Mr Learmount, a former pilot and now operations and safety editor at the respected Flight Global publication, points out that MH370 might have flown over several Asian countries including Thailand, Burma, China, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan.

Holding back: Aviation expert David Learmount suggested some countries may be withholding radar information

If it emerges that an unidentified aircraft had been able to fly over a territory undetected and unchallenged it would amount to an embarrassing security failure.

Regarding the Malaysian sighting Mr Learmount wrote: 'Clearly they had let an unidentified aircraft pass through Malaysian sovereign territory without bothering to identify it; not something they were happy to admit.

'The Malaysian government has called upon all the countries to the north-west as far as Turkmenistan and the Caspian Sea to check their primary radar records for unidentified contacts in their airspace in the seven hours after the 777 went missing.

'Depending on the actual track the aircraft followed, if it had headed approximately north-west this could include some–if not all–of the following countries: Thailand, Myanmar/Burma, China, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan.

'If the aircraft had gone that way, surely military primary radar in one of those countries–or several–would have picked up the signal from this unidentified aircraft, and the vigilant radar operator would have scrambled a fighter to intercept the intruder?

'Wouldn’t s/he? Or maybe not. Maybe these states’ air defences, like Malaysia’s, are not what they are cracked up to be. And maybe they wouldn’t want the rest of the world to know that.'