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Malaysia rejects reports plane flew a few hours after contact lost

KUALA LUMPUR — Hopes for a breakthrough in the continuing search for MH370 were swiftly dashed yesterday, with the Malaysian authorities rejecting reports that the plane had flown for a few hours after contact with air traffic controllers was lost and that Chinese satellites had captured images of the possible debris.

A military officer working on a map onboard a Royal Malaysian Air Force CN235 aircraft during a Search and Rescue operation to find the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, in the Straits of Malacca, yesterday. Photo: Reuters

A military officer working on a map onboard a Royal Malaysian Air Force CN235 aircraft during a Search and Rescue operation to find the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, in the Straits of Malacca, yesterday. Photo: Reuters

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KUALA LUMPUR — Hopes for a breakthrough in the continuing search for MH370 were swiftly dashed yesterday, with the Malaysian authorities rejecting reports that the plane had flown for a few hours after contact with air traffic controllers was lost and that Chinese satellites had captured images of the possible debris.

As scrutiny intensified over Malaysia’s handling of the crisis, the Malaysian government sought to show that it was on top of the situation by suggesting that leads provided by other countries were inaccurate and gave false hope, including the satellite images that were released “by mistake”.

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, with 239 people on board, dropped off air traffic control screens early on Saturday morning, less than an hour into a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. There were no reports of bad weather or mechanical problems.

Yesterday, a report in The Wall Street Journal said United States aviation investigators and national security officials believed the Boeing 777 flew for a total of five hours, based on data automatically downloaded and sent to the ground from its Rolls-Royce Trent engines as part of a standard monitoring programme. Boeing and Rolls-Royce have yet to comment.

But Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told a news conference: “As far as both Rolls-Royce and Boeing are concerned, those reports are inaccurate. The last (data) transmission from the aircraft was at 1.07am (local time), which indicated that everything was normal.”

Yet, when asked if it were possible that the plane kept flying for several hours, Mr Hishammuddin said: “Of course, we can’t rule anything out. This is why we have extended the search into the Andaman Sea.” The sea, which is part of the Indian Ocean, is north-west of the Malay Peninsula.

An international search effort has been sweeping the South China Sea, but also focusing on the Strait of Malacca because of unconfirmed military radar sightings indicating the plane might have changed course and headed west after it stopped communicating. The United States National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement that its experts in air traffic control and radar who travelled to Kuala Lumpur over the weekend were giving the Malaysians technical help.

The hunt has been punctuated by false leads, the latest yesterday when planes were sent to search the area where Chinese satellite images taken on March 9 and published yesterday on a Chinese government website showed “three suspected floating objects” of varying sizes in a 20km radius off the southern tip of Vietnam. The Malaysian and Vietnamese authorities, however, found no sign of the airliner.

Mr Hishammuddin said the images were “released by mistake, and did not show any debris from MH370”. He said Malaysia had received a note on the matter from China’s Ambassador to Malaysia Huang Huikang, saying it “neither authorises nor endorses this behaviour, which is now under investigation”.

Malaysia yesterday continued to bear criticism over its handling of the crisis, with Premier Li Keqiang, speaking at a news conference in Beijing, demanding that the “relevant party” step up coordination of its search efforts.

The plane was heading north-east over the Gulf of Thailand towards Vietnam when it vanished. The last message transmitted from the cockpit to Malaysian air traffic controllers was routine: “All right, good night.”

The Malaysian police have said they are 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.

Mr Hishammuddin also debunked media reports that the police had searched the homes of the missing aircraft’s crew. But reflecting the disarray among officials in the aftermath of the plane’s disappearance, Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi told reporters that the police had indeed visited the homes of the crew members. Mr Zahid said it was part of the investigation into the missing aircraft, adding that several other locations were also covered. “It is to further probe the case and add value to the investigation,” he said. Agencies

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