KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- Malaysian authorities defended their handling of the hunt for the missing Boeing 777 on Wednesday even as they acknowledged they were unsure which direction the plane was headed when it disappeared, highlighting the massive task facing an international search mission now in its fifth day.Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein described the multinational search for the missing plane as an unprecedented and complicated effort and defended his country's efforts. Some 43 ships and 39 aircraft from at least eight nations were scouring an area of 35,800 square miles.
"It's not something that is easy. We are looking at so many vessels and aircraft, so many countries to coordinate, and a vast area for us to search," he said. "But we will never give up. This we owe to the families" of those on board.
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 took off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing early Saturday morning and fell off civilian radar screens at 1:30 a.m. about 35,000 feet above the Gulf of Thailand between Malaysia and southern Vietnam. It sent no distress signals or any indication it was experiencing any problems.
Malaysian authorities have since said that air defense radar picked up traces of what might have been the plane turning back and flying until it reached the Strait of Malacca, a busy shipping lane west of the narrow nation some 250 miles from the plane's last known coordinates. Military and government officials on Wednesday said American experts, and the manufacturer of the radar systems, were examining that data to confirm it showed the Boeing 777. Until then, they said the search would continue on both sides of the country, with an equal focus.
Dozens of ships and planes searching waters have failed to turn up anything, prompting officials to expand the hunt. Malaysia asked India to join the search for the missing jet in waters near the Andaman Sea -- far to the northwest of its last reported position.
"As of today, we have not found anything, but we are extending (the search) further," Hishammuddin said.
The U.S. government has offered wide-ranging assistance, including investigators from the FBI, FAA and National Transportation Safety Board. On Wednesday, the NTSB said in a statement that its investigators, who have expertise in air-traffic control and radar, were providing technical assistance to Malaysian authorities. The investigators traveled to Kuala Lumpur during the weekend.
Air force chief Gen. Rodzali Daud said air defense radar showed an unidentified object at 2:15 a.m. about 200 miles northwest of Penang.
"I am not saying it's flight MH370. We are still corroborating this. It was an unidentifiable plot," he said.
It's unlikely the plane would have flown across Malaysia without being detected by civilian radar unless its electrical systems, including transponders allowing it to be identified by radar, were either knocked out or turned off.
If it did in fact change direction so dramatically to the southwest, the jet might have flown hundreds of miles off course without maintaining radio or data contact with controllers. For that to be possible, experts say the plane must have either suffered an electrical failure that disabled the transponder which reports location, altitude, and speed, or somebody in the cockpit deliberately turned it off.
| That's the problem with relying on transponders. Turn it off and nobody on the civilian side knows where the heck the plane is. |