PETALING JAYA: The Transport Ministry has rubbished a CNN report which claimed that Malaysia scrambled its fighter jet to look for MH370, soon after the plane went missing over the South China Sea in the wee hours of March 8.
The Ministry said the CNN report that the Royal Malaysian Air Force scrambled search aircraft soon after the Boeing 777-200ER jet, carrying 239 passengers and crew, disappeared from the civilian radar, was false.
The communications team of acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein tweeted last night that the CNN report was a false allegation.
“Latest from @CNN claiming that Msian Air Force aircraft scrambled soon after @MAS reported #MH370 missing early 8/3 (March 8) is a false allegation,” said a
Twitter message from the team posted at 10.29pm, yesterday on its official Twitter account @H2OComms.
The Minister later re-tweeted the message on his official Twitter account, @HishammuddinH2O.
Twitter users also wondered whether CNN was being paid to carry these false reports against Malaysia.
MH370 went missing on a flight from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport to Beijing, China. The flight which was code shared with the South China Airways disappeared from civilian radar over South China Sea, but appeared on military radar an hour later but on the western side of peninsula Malaysia.
The plane was heading towards the Andaman Sea. Satellite pings from the plane showed that the plane flew towards the southern Indian Ocean and ended its journey in the wild ocean.
Search teams from some 26 countries with aircraft and ships are scouring the area to find the plane’s final resting place.
