SEPANG: Malaysian authorities are keenly working with international aviation experts to examine records between civil dan military radars on the missing Malaysia Airlines (MAS) MH370’s flight path before the aircraft disappeared last Saturday.
Acting Transport Minister and Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said Malaysia was working together with National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) of the United States, the US Federal Aviation Authority and Boeing company to study the record of the primary and secondary radars.
He said the secondary radar was used by the Malaysian Civil Aviation Department where the details of aircraft were shown on it.
However, the military’s primary radar only displayed a ‘plot’ representing an aircraft and did not display the detailed information about the plane.
“Due to the difference of information between the two radars, we are trying to establish whether the flight shown in these radars are the same flight of MH370,” he told reporters here yesterday.
The Malaysian aircraft went missing en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing after taking off from the KL International Airport at 12.41am Saturday. It should have landed in Beijing at 6.30am on the same day.
Royal Malaysian Air Force chief Tan Sri Rodzali Daud elaborated further that the last time MH370 lost its signal from secondary radar was at 1.30am on March 8.
“But later military primary radar detected an aircraft in a plot image heading to West Coast areas from South China Sea, which we believe it probably could be the same aircraft of MH370 as the radar could not identify the aircraft,” he said.
He said the secondary radar lost the aircraft signal at 2.15am.
Armed Forces chief Tan Sri Zulkifeli Mohd Zin said due to the unconfirmed information of the flight path, the authority had initiated two locations of search and rescue (SAR) straight away which was 120 nautical miles from East Kota Baharu and the other in the Straits of Malaka. — Bernama