Malaysia denies military radar received signals from missing jet headed off course

Malaysian Air force Chief General Rodzali Daud has reportedly denied that the military base had detected the aircraft near an island in the Malacca Strait, after he was quoted by a local newspaper claiming the same.

The Malaysian air force chief General was quoted saying that the radar at a military base had detected the ill-fated Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 near Pulau Perak, at the northern approach to the Malacca Strait, far to the southwest of where it should have been headed.

According to News.com.au, a high-ranking military official involved in the investigation also confirmed that the aircraft was believed to be flying low.

The Boeing 777 jetliner disappeared on Saturday last week after an hour of its take off from Kuala Lumpur enroute to Beijing.

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, the report said.

A military official said that the jet changed course after Kota Bharu and took a lower altitude and made into Malacca Strait.

According to the report, a live relay of commercial aircraft activity in the region clearly showed the crowded airspace through which the airliner must have flown if it did suddenly divert west.

Former managing director of the US National Transportation Safety Board, Peter Goelz, said that 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.

Meanwhile, Interpol has revealed that the two passengers on board who had been allegedly travelling on false documents, were identified as 19-year-old Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad and 29-year-old Delavar Seyedmohammaderza, who aimed to start their lives afresh.