MH370 search: Plane had not skirted to Indonesian airspace as reported by CNN, says Hisham

KUALA LUMPUR: The crashed Malaysia Airlines flight, MH370 had not skirted Indonesian airspace in a bid to evade radar detection as reported by CNN, said acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein (pic).

"I got the Chief of the Malaysian Defence Force to contact his Indonesian counterpart, and they have confirmed they have had no sighting of the plane," said Hishammuddin at the MH370 press conference held at the Royal Chulan here on Monday.

Hishammuddin had been asked about the report made by CNN senior international correspondent Phil Robertson, who quoted a "senior Malaysian Government official" confirming that the information regarding the flight of the Boeing 777 had been determined based on radar data from Malaysia's neighbours.

"After the Malaysia Airlines flight 370 took that left-hand turn and deviated from its path to Beijing, flew across Malaysia... the official now says that they know from looking at radar data from neighbouring countries that the flight then skirted the radar airspace of Indonesia,” Robertson had said in his report from Kuala Lumpur.

MH370, which had been missing for 17 days before it was declared by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak on March 24 to have ended its flight in the Southern Indian Ocean, disappeared from Malaysian radars at 2.15am on March 8 after taking off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport for Beijing at 1.30am. It carried 239 passengers and crew.