Malaysia confirms it has new radar data on missing plane flying over another country (but won't say where for security reasons)

Malaysia says it has 'some radar data' on missing flight MH370



Officials say they are 'not at liberty' to release data from other countries

Relatives of missing stormed press conference where news was revealed

Distressed family held up banners saying officials were 'traitors'



Pilot had programmed a remote island into his home flight simulator

FBI will help analyse any electronic files deleted from the simulator



Search deemed an 'international effort' as 26 countries look for plane



Officials are focusing search on area in southern Indian Ocean

They dismissed previous claims plane was spotted over the Maldives



Rubbished claims flight was using waypoints when last seen on radar



Malaysian officials have confirmed they received 'some radar data' from other countries about the missing Flight MH370 today - but claimed they were 'not at liberty' to release the information.

Speaking at a press conference this afternoon, a cting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said Malaysia was continuing to co-ordinate the search for the missing Boeing 777-200ER.



He added: 'I can confirm that we have received some radar data, but we are not at liberty to release information from other countries.

'I appeal to all our partners to continue volunteering any and all information that could help with the investigation and the search for MH370.'



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Hishammuddin Hussein (centre) told a news conference Malaysia had received 'some radar data' but were 'not at liberty' to release information from other countries

The acting transport minister said: 'I appeal to all our partners to continue volunteering any and all information'

The official also confirmed Malaysia continued to lead the investigation to find the missing plane - but added other countries were leading different searches in other areas



Distraught family members of the missing passengers were removed from the press conference earlier today.

Moments before officials spoke to the media, half a dozen furious relatives stormed the conference - blaming the Malaysian government of failing to work hard enough to find the plane.



The group had banners - most which which blamed the government of inaction - as airline officials desperately tried to resume order.

In dramatic scenes, one woman shouted: 'You are traitors to us... you have let us down. Tell us the truth! We want the truth!'

Hishammuddin Hussein s aid he 'fully understands' the frustration of the relatives of the missing passengers and said a high-level delegation was being sent to Beijing to speak to the families.

He later ordered an inquiry into the incident where security guards carried out the distraught mother of one of the passengers.

It comes as reports suggest the families of the two pilots are struggling to cope.

The Washington Post reported: 'It is very agonizing for the family, and the media is not helping at all,' said Mohammed Ghouse, a longtime friend of [pilot] Zaharie [Ahmad Shah]’s brother-in-law.



'The daughter especially is very upset. She was very close to her father.'



Thai military yesterday said they picked up an unidentified aircraft on radar bearing off the flight path, heading left over Malaysia and towards the Strait of Malacca

A family member of a passenger aboard missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 breaks down as she is removed from a press conference today

The Chinese relative of a passenger is carried away by security after storming the conference this afternoon

A woman is carried out by security officials after she tried to protest before a press conference at a hotel in Sepang, Malaysia. Some of the group held banners blaming the government of letting them down

Sky News presenter Kay Burley was caught on camera tripping up an escalator during a media scrum to speak to the women.



It was reported today pilot Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah had programmed a r emote island in the middle of the Indian Ocean with a runway long enough to land a Boeing 777 into his home flight simulator.



A U.S. official said the Malaysian government is seeking the FBI's help in analyzing any electronic files deleted last month from the pilot's simulator.



The official, speaking anonymously, said the FBI has been provided electronic data to analyze.



CNN also reported investigators at Quantico, a Marine Corps base and home to FBI labs, were examining 'hard drives belonging to two pilots':



Malaysia's defense minister said iinvestigators were trying to restore files deleted from the simulator last month to see if they shed any light on the disappearance.

Files containing records of simulations carried out on the program were deleted February 3.

THE FBI TO ANALYSE FILES FROM PILOT'S FLIGHT SIMULATOR

A U.S. official said the Malaysian government is seeking the FBI's help in analyzing any electronic files deleted last month from the home flight simulator of the pilot of the missing Malaysian plane.

Malaysia's defense minister said earlier Wednesday that investigators were trying to restore files deleted last month from the home simulator used by the pilot, Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah, to see if they shed any light on the disappearance. Files containing records of simulations carried out on the program were deleted Feb. 3.

At the news conference today, Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters that 'I don't think we have any theories" about what happened to the plane but said the FBI has been in touch with Malaysian investigators about providing any help that it can.

'We are in ongoing conversations about how we can help and we will make available whatever resources that we have, whatever expertise we have, that might be able to be used,' Holder said.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 with 239 people aboard disappeared March 8 on a night flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.



At a news conference Wednesday, US Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters: 'I don't think we have any theories' about what happened to the plane'

However, he said the FBI has been in touch with Malaysian investigators about providing any help that it can.



'We are in ongoing conversations about how we can help and we will make available whatever resources that we have, whatever expertise we have, that might be able to be used,' Holder said.



Suggestions the flight may have deliberately been changed were challenged by the acting transport minister today.



In words that appeared to rubbish a Reuters report suggesting MH370 used waypoints, or navigational points, after losing contact with ground control, he said: 'I am aware of speculation that additional waypoints were added to the aircraft’s flight routing. I can confirm that the aircraft flew on normal routing up until the waypoint IGARI. There is no additional waypoint on MH370’s documented flight plan, which depicts normal routing all the way to Beijing.'



Investigators at the conference also rubbished reports the plane may have been sighted over the Maldives.

Some residents of Kudahuvadhoo, one of the most remote parts of the area, said they saw a low-flying aircraft on the morning the flight's disappearance. Hishammuddin Hussein said these were false.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 with 239 people aboard disappeared March 8 on a night flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.



It is now 12 days after it vanished from air traffic control screens off Malaysia's east coast at 1:21am local time. No wreckage has been found.



Thousands of well-wishers have written on a prayer wall at Kuala Lumpur Airport, begging MH370 and its passengers to come home.

An unprecedented search for the plane is under way involving 26 nations in two vast search 'corridors'.

One of the corridors arches north overland from Laos towards the Caspian Sea, while the other curves south across the Indian Ocean from west of Indonesia's Sumatra island to west of Australia.



Reports today suggest investigators believe the plane most likely flew into the southern Indian Ocean.



Another theory, predicted by a veteran pilot, suggests the flight was in trouble and simply heading for the nearest safe airport when it turned off-course.

Sky News' Kay Burley was one of many journalists at the conference today

In an attempt to speak with one of the women who stormed the conference, Burley appeared to fall up and escalator, pictured

Also reported today was the fact the U-turn made by the missing jet is believed to have been programmed into the on board computer before the last radio contact was made with the co-pilot.

A leading aviation expert yesterday suggested Asian military officials may be staging a mass cover-up because they do not want to expose gaping holes within their countries' air defences.

The jet went missing shortly after 1am - but it wasn't until the following Tuesday that the Malaysian Air Force reported they had spotted the aircraft on radar over the Strait of Malacca at 2.15am.

A woman look at the thousands of messages left for those missing aboard the flight at Kuala Lumpur Airport

The 'prayer wall' was started soon after the craft disappeared on March 8. No sign of the plane has been found

Thailand's military yesterday said they detected a plane at 1.28am, eight minutes after MH370's communications went down, heading towards the Strait but did not share the information because they were not asked for it.

Writing on his blog, aviation expert David Learmount said: 'Maybe these states’ air defences, like Malaysia’s, are not what they are cracked up to be.

'And maybe they wouldn’t want the rest of the world to know that.'

Mr Learmount, a former pilot and now operations and safety editor at the respected Flight Global publication, points out that MH370 might have flown over several Asian countries including Thailand, Burma, China, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan.

Holding back: Aviation expert David Learmount suggested some countries may be withholding radar information

If it emerges that an unidentified aircraft had been able to fly over a territory undetected and unchallenged it would amount to an embarrassing security failure.

Regarding the Malaysian sighting Mr Learmount wrote: 'Clearly they had let an unidentified aircraft pass through Malaysian sovereign territory without bothering to identify it; not something they were happy to admit.

'The Malaysian government has called upon all the countries to the north-west as far as Turkmenistan and the Caspian Sea to check their primary radar records for unidentified contacts in their airspace in the seven hours after the 777 went missing.

'Depending on the actual track the aircraft followed, if it had headed approximately north-west this could include some–if not all–of the following countries: Thailand, Myanmar/Burma, China, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan.

'If the aircraft had gone that way, surely military primary radar in one of those countries–or several–would have picked up the signal from this unidentified aircraft, and the vigilant radar operator would have scrambled a fighter to intercept the intruder?