Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said in a news conference that Search and Rescue (SAR) operations for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in the South China Sea have ended, and existing SAR assets would be instead refocused on two corridors to the west of the Straits of Malacca, based on new verified information.
Najib also said that Flight MH370 had its communication systems turned off at the border between Malaysian and Vietnamese airspace, and was deliberately flown on a northwesterly heading that deviated from its intended flight path from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
The last known communication between Flight MH370 and positioning satellites was at 8:11am Malaysian time on Satruday March 8.
Investigators are now focusing on two corridor-shaped areas that plot MH370’s possible flight path after its disappearance. The two corridors stretch out to the north and to the south of the jetliner’s last recorded position, with the north corridor extending as far as northern Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, and the southern corridor stretching down into Indonesia and the south Indian Ocean. The new countries whose territory would be part of the expanded search have been invited to a brief on the MH370 SAR operation, and Malaysia will be requesting all relevant radar and flight data from these countries.
He added that the forensic data leading to these conclusions had been shared, analysed and corroborated by multinational agencies, including the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) and US National Transport Safety Board (NTSB).
Najib in his statement did not confirm nor deny an earlier report from today that Flight MH370 was hijacked, according to an unnamed Malaysian official, but instead left open the possiblity of the plane having been taken over.
