'Tell us the truth': Chinese families hurl water bottles at Malaysian airline staff as clueless officials admit the plane could be ANYWHERE within 27,000 square nautical mile area
- Nine new reports of noise and light in sky near Malaysia-Thai border
- Eyewitnesses in villages reported sightings of plane low over the sea
- Search now focuses on Strait of Malacca and Andaman Sea
- Relatives in Beijing shout and throw bottles at Malaysian Airlines staff
- They demand: 'Why is Malaysian military keeping what they know secret?'
- Malaysian authorities defended their handling of the hunt for missing plane
- Officials now reveal search is covering 27,000 square nautical miles
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Malaysian authorities have defended their handling of the hunt for the missing Malaysia Airlines passenger jet as they revealed the search is now covering 27,000 square nautical miles.
Officials have admitted they were unsure which direction the plane was headed when it disappeared as the international search mission carries on in its fifth day.
The mystery over the plane's whereabouts has been confounded by confusing and occasionally conflicting statements by Malaysian officials, adding to the anguish of relatives of the 239 people on board the flight - two thirds of them Chinese.
Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein described the multinational search for the missing plane as an unprecedented and complicated effort and defended his country's efforts.
He said two areas, in the Straits of Malacca and the South China Sea, were being searched by a total of 43 ships and 39 planes.
The latest information comes after Chinese relatives of the missing people vented their frustration at Malaysian officials in Beijing, throwing water bottles and shouting: 'Tell us the truth.'
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Malaysia's acting transport minister Hussein
Hishammuddin (centre) has said the search for the missing Malaysia
Airlines flight is now covering 27,000 square nautical miles
Malaysian acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin
Hussein, left, answers a question during a press conference at a hotel
in Sepang, Malaysia
A bottle is thrown as angry relatives of missing
Chinese passengers confront Malaysian airline and government officials
at a meeting in Beijing which was supposed to answer their questions but
which ended in rowdy scenes
A water bottle is thrown towards Malaysian
officials from its embassy in Beijing and from Malaysian Airlines as
they meet relatives of missing Chinese passengers. Flight MH370 had 153
Chinese passengers on board.
Police in Malaysia have said they had nine
eyewitness reports of aircraft 'noise and lights' being seen in the
north-east of the country, near the border with Thailand, after the
plane's last recorded sighting on civilian radar systems
Air force chief Rodzali Daud said air defence radar showed an unidentified object at 2:15am about 200 miles (320 kilometers) northwest of Penang.
'I am not saying it's flight MH370. We are still corroborating this. It was an unidentifiable plot,' he said.
Military and government officials said American experts and the manufacturer of the radar systems were examining that data to confirm whether it showed the Boeing 777. Until then, they said the search would continue on both sides of the country.
The plane's sudden disappearance led to initial speculation of a catastrophic incident that caused its disintegration. The possibility now that it continued to fly without communicating with the ground would mean its electrical systems, including transponders which allow it to be identified by commercial radar, were either knocked out or turned off, voluntarily or otherwise.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang, meanwhile, told reporters in Beijing: 'There's too much information and confusion right now. It is very hard for us to decide whether a given piece of information is accurate.
'We will not give it up as long as there's still a shred of hope.'
The country's transport minister Mr Hishammuddin said the search now involved 12 countries, including India and Japan.
He said: 'It's not something that is easy. We are looking at so many vessels and aircraft, so many countries to coordinate, and a vast area for us to search,' he said. 'But we will never give up. This we owe to the families' of those on board.
Malaysia Airlines staff organise relatives of
passengers onboard flight MH370 as they line up to receive a special
condolence payment of 31,000 CNY (almost $5,000) at Lido Hotel, in
Beijing
A charity worker comforts the relative of a passenger onboard the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370
A man stands under an umbrella near an office
building with lights forming the word MH370, the flight number of the
missing Malaysia Airlines plane, in Shanghai
Chinese relatives of the passengers onboard
Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 gather inside the relative area at Lido
Hotel in Beijing
The new claims follow two earlier statements by a businessman and a fisherman that they had seen an aircraft's lights low in the sky before they disappeared.
Deputy police commander Dak Jalaluddin Abdul Rahman said the eyewitnesses had reported that they saw an aircraft - possibly the missing jet - at about the time all civilian tracking data was lost with flight MH370 in the early hours of last Saturday.
The reports, from several towns and villages in the north east, said the aircraft was seen low over the sea.
The towns included Kuala Besar, Pentai Cahaya Bulan, Pentai Senok and Penarik, all of which are on the coast of the South China Sea, which is south and west of where the plane was last seen.
Airforce personnel during a search mission for
the Malaysian Airlines aircraft on board of a military surveillance
airplane over the Malacca Strait
Members of the Philippines Air Force Search and
Rescue Group aboard a C-130 plane conducting an aerial search for the
missing Malaysian Airlines flight
The pilot of an Indonesian Air Force military
surveillance aircraft over the Malacca Strait, a passageway between
Indonesia and Malaysia
A member of Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency scans the horizon during a search operation for the missing flight
An officer aboard a Vietnamese military helicopter searches for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370
'A bus driver, who gave his voluntary statement on Sunday, said he saw a low-flying plane at Penarik at about 1.45am the same day flight MH370 went missing.
DID THE PILOT COMMIT SUICIDE?
Authorities
are investigating the possibility that the pilot of the missing
Malaysian Airlines flight MH 370 committed suicide, the director of the
CIA has revealed.
John Brennan (below), head of the US Central Intelligence Agency, said: 'I think you cannot discount any theory', when asked if it was possible the pilot deliberately crashed the Boeing 777.
The theory could offer an explanation as to how the plane 'disappeared' from civilian radar tracking its movements, as the pilot could have switched off the transponder shortly before it vanished.
The CIA chief’s intervention came as Malaysian police say they are carrying out psychological profiles of everyone on board the plane, which vanished on Saturday carrying 239 people after taking off from Kuala Lumpur en route to Beijing.
He told reporters there were a host of unanswered questions, including why the plane's transponder stopped emitting signals and what was the role of passengers carrying stolen passports.
'There are a number of very curious anomalies about all of this,’ he said.
‘You know, did it turn around? You know, were the individuals with these stolen passports in any way involved?'
He added: 'What about the transponder? Why did it sort of, you know, just disappear from the radar?
'We are looking at it very carefully. Clearly this is still a mystery.’
John Brennan (below), head of the US Central Intelligence Agency, said: 'I think you cannot discount any theory', when asked if it was possible the pilot deliberately crashed the Boeing 777.
The theory could offer an explanation as to how the plane 'disappeared' from civilian radar tracking its movements, as the pilot could have switched off the transponder shortly before it vanished.
The CIA chief’s intervention came as Malaysian police say they are carrying out psychological profiles of everyone on board the plane, which vanished on Saturday carrying 239 people after taking off from Kuala Lumpur en route to Beijing.
He told reporters there were a host of unanswered questions, including why the plane's transponder stopped emitting signals and what was the role of passengers carrying stolen passports.
'There are a number of very curious anomalies about all of this,’ he said.
‘You know, did it turn around? You know, were the individuals with these stolen passports in any way involved?'
He added: 'What about the transponder? Why did it sort of, you know, just disappear from the radar?
'We are looking at it very carefully. Clearly this is still a mystery.’
From the Marang area, said the commander, eight villagers lodged police reports claiming they had heard a loud noise on Saturday night coming from the direction of Pulau Kapas.
One of the villagers, Alias Salleh, 36, told The Star newspaper that he and some friends were on a bench about 400m from the Marang beach at 1.20am when they heard a loud and frightening noise which sounded like the fan of a jet engine.
'The loud and frightening noise came from the north east of Pulau Kapas,' said Mr Alias.
'We looked around the Rhu Muda beach but did not see anything unusual.'
If the sightings are correct it would put the plane on course for the north of the Strait of Malacca, assuming it maintained a steady route.
That is where the main search and rescue operation is now concentrating on, according to Gen Daud.
Gen Daud said that the search now included waters around Penang Island, at the north of the Malacca Strait.
The plane turning back 'had not been ruled out', he said.
He denied he had said that there had been a definite sighting of it on military radar, but did not deny that there was a sighting - only that he had said it himself.
Meanwhile the country's civilian aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said today: 'There is a possibility of an air turn back. We are still investigating and looking at the radar readings.'
On a day of confusion, Vietnam briefly scaled back the search off the southern coast, saying it was receiving scanty and confusing information from Malaysia.
Hanoi later said the hunt - now in its fifth day - was back on in full force and was even extending on to land.
The confusion over where to look is adding to one of the most baffling mysteries in modern aviation mystery, and prolonging the agonising wait for hundreds of relatives of the missing.
In Beijing, there was fury from families of the 239 people on board, who are desperate for any news. Relatives hurled water bottles at airline officials and accused them of lying.
At least three people threw water bottles at a meeting held between Malaysian airline and embassy officials and relatives of some of the 153 Chinese passengers who were on board.
At the meeting in Beijing, people shouted 'tell us the truth' and asked exactly what the Malaysian military knew about the missing plane.
When officials refused to discuss exactly what was known, bottles were thrown and some relatives lunged towards the Malaysians.
The massive search operation involving ships and aircraft from 10 countries is spread out over the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea, which lie between Malaysia and Vietnam, and in the Strait of Malacca into the Andaman Sea.
Zaharie Ahmad Shah (left), a 53-year-old
Malaysian, who was one of the pilots of the Malaysia Airlines plane that
remains missing and Indonesian passenger Firman Siregar (right),
pictured on his university graduation day
Stunt man Ju Kun, pictured on the back lot of
the new Pinewood Studios in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, was among the
passengers on the Malaysia Airlines plane that disappeared early
Saturday
Indonesian Air Force crewmen of a Boeing 737
'Surveiller' maritime patrol aircraft of the 5th Air Squadron 'Black
Mermaids' pray prior to a search operation for the missing Malaysia
Airlines Boeing 777
Chinese relatives of passengers onboard attend a conference with Malaysia Airlines on Tuesday
China's civil aviation chief said its air force would add two planes to the search effort, which would be broadened to include land areas. He did not elaborate.
The Indian Express said India, which controls the Andaman and Nicobar island chains and has a strong naval presence in the Andaman Sea, had been asked to help, but a defence ministry source said there had been no formal request from Malaysia.
IRANIAN LAWMAKER CLAIMS U.S. 'KIDNAPPED' FLIGHT MH370
An
Iranian parliamentarian has blamed the disappearance of flight MH370 on
the United States, claiming it 'kidnapped' the flight in an attempt to
'sabotage' relationships between Iran and China and South East Asia.
Hossein Naghavi Hosseini, the spokesman for the foreign policy committee, has claimed reports of two Iranian nationals travelling on the missing Malaysia Airlines flight on stolen passports was 'psychological warfare', The New York Times has reported.
He said: 'Americans recruit some people for such kinds of operations so they can throw the blame on other countries, especially Muslim countries.'
Interpol confirmed yesterday that Iranian nationals Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad, 19, and Delavar Seyed Mohammadreza, 29, travelled to Malaysia on their Iranian passports before switching to the stolen Austrian and Italian documents.
Interpol secretary general Ronald Noble said the recent information about the men made terrorism a less likely cause of the plane's disappearance. He said: 'The more information we get, the more we are inclined to conclude it is not a terrorist incident.'
Hossein Naghavi Hosseini, the spokesman for the foreign policy committee, has claimed reports of two Iranian nationals travelling on the missing Malaysia Airlines flight on stolen passports was 'psychological warfare', The New York Times has reported.
He said: 'Americans recruit some people for such kinds of operations so they can throw the blame on other countries, especially Muslim countries.'
Interpol confirmed yesterday that Iranian nationals Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad, 19, and Delavar Seyed Mohammadreza, 29, travelled to Malaysia on their Iranian passports before switching to the stolen Austrian and Italian documents.
Interpol secretary general Ronald Noble said the recent information about the men made terrorism a less likely cause of the plane's disappearance. He said: 'The more information we get, the more we are inclined to conclude it is not a terrorist incident.'
Experts meanwhile have said search teams are running out of time before the battery on the plane's underwater locator beacon runs out.
Alan Lau Kin-tak, of Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s mechanical engineering department, has told the South China Morning Post: 'The battery life of the locator lasts 30 days. If they cannot find it within this window, it will become very hard to locate.'
No signal was picked up either from the emergency locator transmitter, which ejects from a plane if it crashes and lasts for 24 hours.
In the absence of any concrete evidence to explain the plane's disappearance, authorities have not ruled out anything. Police have said they were investigating whether any passengers or crew on the plane had personal or psychological problems that might shed light on the mystery, along with the possibility of a hijacking, sabotage or mechanical failure.
The airline said it was taking seriously a report by a South African woman who said the co-pilot of the missing plane had invited her and a female travelling companion to sit in the cockpit during a flight two years ago, in an apparent breach of security.
'Malaysia Airlines has become aware of the allegations being made against First Officer Fariq Ab Hamid which we take very seriously. We are shocked by these allegations. We have not been able to confirm the validity of the pictures and videos of the alleged incident,' the airline said in a statement.
A well-known Malaysian malay bomoh (shaman),
Ibrahim Mat Zin (centre) holds two coconuts as him and his assistants
offer to help locate the missing Malaysia Airlines flight
Shaman Ibrahim Mat Zin, bottom right, uses
spiritual methods and prayers at Kuala Lumpur International Airport
while the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane MH370 continues
The massive search operation involving ships and
aircraft from 10 countries is spread out over the Gulf of Thailand and
the South China Sea, which lie between Malaysia and Vietnam, and in the
Strait of Malacca into the Andaman Sea
Vietnamese Navy's Deputy Commander Rear Admiral
Le Minh Thanh (centre) speaks to reporters during a press conference on
search activities for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight
The woman,
Jonti Roos, said in an interview with Australia's Channel Nine TV that
she and her friend were invited to fly in the cockpit by Fariq and the
pilot between Phuket, Thailand, and Kuala Lumpur in December 2011. The
TV channel showed pictures of the four apparently in a plane's cockpit.
The Boeing 777 has one of the best safety records of any commercial aircraft in service. Its only previous fatal crash came on July 6 last year when Asiana Airlines Flight 214 struck a seawall on landing in San Francisco, killing three people.
U.S. planemaker Boeing has declined to comment beyond a brief statement saying it was monitoring the situation.
The Boeing 777 has one of the best safety records of any commercial aircraft in service. Its only previous fatal crash came on July 6 last year when Asiana Airlines Flight 214 struck a seawall on landing in San Francisco, killing three people.
U.S. planemaker Boeing has declined to comment beyond a brief statement saying it was monitoring the situation.
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