Frustrated relatives of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vent their anger at officials by throwing bottles of water during a press conference.
Identified ... Pouria Mohammad Mehrdad and Delavar Seyedmohammaderza. Source: Getty Images
- Final words of MH370 pilot told to meeting
- Search for missing plane expanded beyond flight path
- Co-pilot's laid back approach to security under scrutiny
MALAYSIAN authorities have expanded the search zone for MH370 and are now combing 27,000 square nautical miles in two areas as the desperate search to find the missing airliner enters its sixth day.
The search zone is now focusing on two areas - the Malacca Strait and the South China Sea - as authorities admit they still have little idea where the aircraft went in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Military chiefs said it is still only a "possibility" that MH370 was the aircraft plotted on military radar at 2.15am on Saturday, flying 320km north-west of Penang, on Malaysia's western peninsula.
The chief of Malaysia's air force General Tan Sri Rozali Daud said authorities were currently attempting to corroborate this with other civil radar and with the help from other countries.
The plane disappeared from civilian radar at 1.30am with no distress call or any signal and nothing has been heard from it since.
The search of 12,425 square nautical miles of Malacca Strait is based on the possibility that the unidentified plane on the military radar was MH370 and that it had inexplicably gone hundreds of kilometers off course.
The mysterious disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 baffles experts. Courtesy: FOX News
However authorities continue to search 14,440 square nautical miles in the South China Sea, around the area where the aircraft was last heard from shortly before it crossed into Vietnamese air space.
The search is now concentrated on both sides of Malaysia.
Malaysia's Transport and Defence Minister Hissammuddin Hussein promised "we will do whatever it takes to find it" and denied there had been confusion and chaos in the past five days in the bid to find the missing plane.
He said the reason for two search zones was because there was still no certainty where the plane had gone after its last known contact with the air traffic control and before it dropped off civil radar at 1.30am.
"Today we are still not sure it is the same aircraft (tracked on military radar). That 's why we are searching in two areas. That's why we are deploying all our aircraft and vessels in these two areas. If we know for sure it is in the Malacca Strait we would have moved all our assets there," Mr Hussein said.
Last words: 'All right, good night'
The last radio transmission from the cockpit of missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 was "All right, good night'', Kuala Lumpur's ambassador to Beijing reportedly said today during a meeting with Chinese relatives.
Iskandar Sarudin was speaking to passengers' relatives and friends at a Beijing hotel. A total of 153 of the 239 people on board the aircraft are Chinese.
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The flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing disappeared from radar screens early on Saturday without making a distress call and no confirmed wreckage has been found, despite a vast search.
The "All right, good night'' comment from one of the pilots came as the flight switched from Malaysian to Vietnamese airspace, Singapore's Straits Times newspaper quoted the ambassador as saying.
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Anxious and angry, the two-hour long meeting ended with more questions than answers at the Metropark Lido hotel where Mr Sarudin, spoke to the relatives.
Officials told them that the pilot should still have sent a secret mayday code, even if the plane was hijacked.
The officials also said that there was no reason to suspect the pilot, who was experienced and had passed all the checks that apply to pilots.
More details have been released of the two men travelling with stolen passports on the missing Malaysia jet
In a confusing exchange, relatives asked if military-grade radar had picked up the plane.
Military air data and technology would go beyond the civilian ones, they said.
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The official replied that the Malaysian military was assisting investigations "at a high level."
Pressed repeatedly on what information the military had given authorities, he finally replied that "now is not the time" to reveal it.
The exchange boosted theories among the families that there are ongoing secret negotiations with terrorists who had hijacked the plane.
Adding to this was the official's earlier statement that Malaysia hopes that the passengers are alive.
Meanwhile, authorities say they now have six reports of possible witnesses to the plane after they lost track of it, instead of five reported earlier.
And, China's foreign ministry says its aircraft are not conducting searches over land for missing flight MH370 but instead expanding searches at sea, Channel News Asia reports.
Last words ... Zaharie Ahmad Shah, a 53-year-old Malaysian, was the pilot of the Malaysia Airlines plane that remains missing. Source: Supplied
CHAOS ESCALATES AS FRUSTRATION WITH SEARCH BUILDS
CHAOS surrounding the hunt for missing Flight MH370 has escalated to alarming levels, with Vietnam stopping its air search and scaling back its sea search in frustration with Malaysia.
Officials said a lack of clarity from Malaysian authorities about the potential new direction of the international search for the Boeing 777 had forced its hand.
"We've decided to temporarily suspend some search and rescue activities, pending information from Malaysia," deputy minister of transport Pham Quy Tieu said, adding that boats were still searching the area, but on a smaller scale.
The shock move comes after Malaysia swung search operations northwest towards the Andaman Sea, far from the plane's intended route, and a key military chief added to the confusion by denying reports that radar had spotted the airliner hundreds of kilometres off course.
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Air force chief General Rodzali Daud was quoted in a local pro-government newspaper as saying a military base had detected the Malaysia Airlines aircraft near an island in the Malacca Strait, far to the southwest of where it should have been headed.
The news injected even more mystery into the investigation of the jetliner's disappearance, with aviation experts theorising about how the plane could have strayed so far off track for so long.
But General Daud has since released a statement saying that while authorities have not ruled out the possibility the plane inexplicably changed course before losing contact, reports that it had been detected far from its planned flight path were incorrect.
Denial ... General Rodzali Daud now says military radar did not track the plane. Source: AP
"The (air force) has not ruled out the possibility of an air turn-back on a reciprocal heading before the aircraft vanished from the radar," he said.
Mr Tieu said they had asked the Malaysian authorities twice about the reports but had received no response.
"We informed Malaysia on the day we lost contact with the flight that we noticed the flight turned back west but Malaysia did not respond,'' he added.
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The continuing confusion comes as a huge search effort is still unable to locate the plane or any wreckage several days after it lost contact while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and the zone where officials concentrate their efforts continues to expand.
Authorities began their search at the position it was last reported to be over the sea between Malaysia and Vietnam but it has since been widened to include the Malacca Strait and the Andaman Sea.
Meanwhile, authorities have identified two passengers travelling on stolen passports and said it was looking less likely that terrorism played a part.
The possibility of a passenger somehow sabotaging the flight so their family could benefit from a lucrative insurance policy has even been put forward by Malaysia's police chief.
And further adding to the intrigue, the laid-back approach to security of one of the flight's co-pilots has also come under scrutiny after two women came forward to detail how he broke rules by inviting them into the cockpit during a flight in 2011.
WHERE DID THE PLANE GO?
The Boeing 777 had taken off from Kuala Lumpur at 12.41am local time on Saturday (3:41am AEDT) and was scheduled to arrive in Beijing at 6:30am the same day, after a roughly 4,350-kilometre journey.
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It reportedly lost contact with air traffic controllers around 1.30am somewhere midway between the east coast Malaysian town of Kota Bharu and the southern tip of Vietnam, while flying at an altitude of 35,000ft.
Local newspaper Berita Harian quoted General Daud as saying radar at a military base had detected the airliner near Pulau Perak, at the northern approach to the Malacca Strait.
A high-ranking military official involved in the investigation confirmed the report and also said the aircraft was believed to be flying low.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.
"It changed course after Kota Bharu and took a lower altitude. It made it into the Malacca Strait," a military official told Reuters.
According to CNN, who cited an unnamed Malaysian Air Force official, the plane's transponder - which continuously transmits flight information - stopped working near the time flight controllers lost contact.
The Malaysian Air Force was said to have lost track of the aircraft's signal at about 2.40am over Pulau Perak - hundreds of kilometres away from where it should have been.
General Daud now denies this.
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Highlighting the confusion, the country's civilian aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said he could neither confirm nor deny the military's remarks.
"There is a possibility of an air turn-back. We are still investigating and looking at the radar readings," he said.
A live relay of commercial aircraft activity in the region - which can be seen above and scrolled through - clearly shows the crowded airspace through which the airliner must have flown if it did suddenly divert west.
Looking ... a helicopter crew member checks a map as the search goes on. Source: AFP
Peter Goelz, former managing director of the US National Transportation Safety Board, said the radar information, if correct, opened up the possibility that someone in the cockpit might have deliberately steered the plane away from its intended destination of Beijing.
"This kind of deviation in course is simply inexplicable," he told CNN.
THE GRIEF GOES ON
The flight had 239 people on board, including six Australians, and the lack of information about its fate is leaving families and relatives increasingly grief-stricken and angry.
READ MORE: WHO ARE THE FOUR WHO MISSED FLIGHT MH370?
The wife of Paul Weeks, a 39-year-old mechanical engineer from New Zealand based in Perth's northern suburbs, said she was still clinging to the faint hope of a miracle.
"We are just waiting. You can think the worst, but in the back of your mind there is that possibility,'' Danica Weeks told 92.9FM in Perth.
"There is no conclusion to it."
The couple have a three-year-old son named Lincoln and a 10-month-old son named Jack, and Ms Weeks said attempting to explain her husband's absence to her sons was the hardest thing to cope with.
Desperate for news ... relatives of passengers from the missing flight in China. Source: AFP
"I had to bring it up with Lincoln, because he had not asked anything - I said to him 'You know Daddy has gone away ... and on the way Daddy got lost','' she said.
"And then I broke down. He is young and resilient - he said 'That is okay mummy, I will find Daddy'."
MEN WITH STOLEN PASSPORTS IDENTIFIED
Interpol yesterday released an image of two Iranians who were travelling with stolen passports on the jetliner.
After lengthy speculation about the intentions of the pair, they were eventually identified as 19-year-old Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad and 29-year-old Delavar Seyedmohammaderza.
Malaysia's Inspector General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar, said Mehrdad was travelling on a stolen Austrian passport and was planning to meet up with his mother in Frankfurt, where he is believed to have planned to seek asylum.
Interpol said Seyedmohammaderza was using a stolen Italian passport and was also believed to be heading to Europe in a bid to start a new life.
Passport fraud ... Interpol and police officials during a press conference. Source: AFP
Interpol secretary-general Ronald K. Noble said the two men travelled to Malaysia on their Iranian passports, then apparently switched to the stolen Austrian and Italian documents and boarded the plane at the same time.
Both bought their tickets in Thailand.
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US authorities later said both men had come up clean after a search of terror and criminal databases.
A student claiming to be a friend of the two men has told America's ABC News that they stayed at his home in Malaysia the night before the flight vanished.
Mohammad Mallaeibasir, 18, said he went to high school with Mehrdad so had them over to his flat before driving the pair to the airport on Saturday.
Identified ... Pouria Mehrdad and Delavar Seyedmohammaderza. Source: Getty Images
He said he did not ask either man why they were in Malaysia but Mehrdad said he was heading to Europe to visit his mother because they were having family problems.
The two men were travelling lightly, although both had laptops.
It is believed their tickets were purchased by an Iranian man known as "Mr Ali."
"The last night when they were in my home they were talking on the phone for a long time," Mallaeibasir said.
"They were talking in Persian, in their room, and I heard them say 'OK Ali' like that in Persian. I didn't understand because it was like, five seconds. I went into the room to take water from my fridge and I came out and they said, 'Be quiet, we're talking.'"
READ MORE: EERIE CONNECTION TO FLIGHT MH370
Mr Noble said the recent information about the men made terrorism a less likely cause of the plane's disappearance, but that did not allay concerns about the ease of travel involving stolen passports.
Authorities said there were now several main areas of investigation: hijack, sabotage, and psychological or personal problems among the passengers and crew.
Theories ... Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu Bakar answers questions. Source: AP
"We are looking very closely at the video footage taken at the KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport), we are studying the behavioural pattern of all the passengers," Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu Bakar told a press conference.
He did not elaborate on exactly what this would entail however.
Illustrating the lack of concrete answers to the plane's disappearance coming from officials, Mr Bakar also put forward a theory on what may have happened.
"Maybe somebody on the flight has bought a huge sum of insurance, who wants family to gain from it or somebody who has owed somebody so much money, you know, we are looking at all possibilities," he said.
Appearing on A Current Affair, a former passenger talks of her meeting with co-pilot Fariq Ab Hamid from the missing Malaysian airlines plane MH370. Courtesy: ACA Nine Network
CO-PILOT SMOKED, TOOK PHOTOS
Investigations into the co-pilot of the flight have discovered he once invited a Melbourne tourist and her friend into the cockpit where he smoked, took photos and entertained the pair during a previous international flight.
READ MORE: THE PLAYBOY PILOT
In a worrying lapse of security, it's been revealed pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid and his colleague broke Malaysia Airline rules when they invited passengers Jonti Roos and Jaan Maree to join them in the cabin for the one-hour flight from Phuket to Kuala Lumpur in 2011.
Ms Roos, who is travelling around Australia, told A Current Affair she and Ms Maree posed for pictures with the pilots, who smoked cigarettes during the midair rendezvous.
Horrible wait for news ... the media surround a Chinese relative of a passenger. Source: AP
"Throughout the entire flight they were talking to us and they were actually smoking throughout the flight which I don't think they're allowed to do," Ms Roos said.
Malaysia Airlines said it was "shocked" by allegations.
"Malaysia Airlines has become aware of the allegations being made against First Officer Fariq Abdul Hamid which we take very seriously. We are shocked by these allegations," a statement by the airline said.
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"We have not been able to confirm the validity of the pictures and videos of the alleged incident. As you are aware, we are in the midst of a crisis, and we do not want our attention to be diverted."
Meanwhile, colleagues and friends of the flight's pilot, Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, have told of a lovely man so devoted to his career he kept a flight simulator at home.
Vigil ... students in east China pray for the missing flight. Source: Getty Images
STILL NO SIGN OF MISSING PLANE
The hunt for the plane began on Saturday near its last known location. But with no debris found there, the search has been systematically expanded to include areas the plane could have reached with the fuel it had on board. That is a vast area in which to locate something as small as a piece of an aircraft.
Malaysia Airlines said search and rescue teams have expanded the scope beyond the flight path to the Malacca Strait between Malaysia's western coast and Indonesia's Sumatra island - the opposite side of Malaysia from its last known location.
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An earlier statement said the western coast of Malaysia was "now the focus", but the airline subsequently said that phrase was an oversight.
"The search is on both sides," Civil aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said.
The search currently includes nine aircraft and 24 ships from nine countries that have been scouring the Gulf of Thailand on the eastern side of Malaysia. Land areas also are being searched.
China, where two-thirds of the passengers are from, has urged Malaysian authorities to "speed up the efforts" to find the plane. It has sent four ships, with another four on the way.
A shopping mall in Beijing suspended advertising on its large outdoor LED screen to display a search timer - an image of an aeroplane along with a digital clock marking the time since contact with the flight was lost.
Assuming the plane crashed into the ocean or disintegrated in midair, there will likely still be debris floating in the ocean, but it may be widely spread out, and much may have already sunk. In past disasters, it has taken days or longer to find wreckage.
The United States has sent two navy ships, at least one of which is equipped with helicopters, and a Navy P-3C Orion plane with sensors that can detect small debris in the water. It said in a statement that the Malaysian government has done "tremendous job'' organising the land and sea search effort.
Vietnamese planes and ships are also taking part.
Lt. Gen. Vo Van Tuan, deputy chief of staff of the Vietnamese People's Army, said authorities on land had also been ordered to search for the plane, which could have crashed into mountains or uninhabited jungle. He said military units near the border with Laos and Cambodia had been instructed to search their regions also.
"So far we have found no signs ... so we must widen our search," he said.
LIGHTS IN THE NIGHT SKY
Malaysian authorities are also investigating several reports of locals claiming to have seen the lights of a low-flying aircraft in an area of the Malaysian coast, just below the Malay-Thai border.
It is this area which is now included in the widened search area.
A fishermen who was in his boat at sea, says that at about 1.30am he saw the lights of a low-flying aircraft in the area of Kuala Besar.
Azid Ibrahim told The Star newspaper in Malaysia that the plane was flying so low that that the lights were "as big as coconuts".
And another man, about 30km south of Kota Baru, is reported to have seen "bright white lights" from what he thought was a fast-descending aircraft at about 1.45am on Saturday morning.
He has since reported what he saw to authorities after seeing the lights from his home that evening.
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