Missing Malaysian Airlines jet ‘flew off course for an hour at low altitude’ [View all]

[FarCenter]

The missing Malaysia Airlines jet flew for an hour off its flight course and at a lower altitude after mysteriously disappearing from civil aviation radar screens in the early hours of Saturday, two senior Malaysian military sources revealed last night.

The surprise disclosure would in part explain the decision by Malaysia two days ago to expand the search area by 100 nautical miles to cover the Strait of Malacca, several hundred kilometres west of the original flight path of flight MH370.

The development comes as international efforts to find the missing Boeing 777 jet enter a fifth fruitless day and hopes of finding the 227 passengers and 12 crew alive fade.

A senior military source told Reuters last night that the Beijing-bound plane was last detected over the Strait of Malacca - one of the world's busiest shipping lanes - at 2.40am, some 550 kilometres west of the original flight path. "It changed course after Kota Bharu and took a lower altitude. It made it into the Strait of Malacca," the military official said. Malaysia Airlines previously said the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing vanished from air traffic control screens at 1.30am, having taken off at 12.41am.

Malaysia's Berita Harian newspaper also quoted air force chief Rodzali Daud yesterday as saying the plane was last detected by military radar at 2.40am on Saturday, near the island of Pulau Perak at the northern end of the Strait of Malacca and at a height of about 29,500 feet.

The latest revelation has raised further questions about the Malaysian government and its national carrier's handling of the situation.

Since the aircraft's disappearance, planes and ships have been deployed to the South China Sea roughly midway between Kota Bharu, on Malaysia's east coast, and the southern tip of Vietnam, along its planned flight path."

http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1446676/missing-malaysian-plane-flew-course-hour-low-altitude

If the Malaysian military has known for two days that the plane disappeared in the Straits of Malacca, why have they permitted the useless searching in the Gulf of Thailand?