SEPANG, March 16 — Police chief Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar denied today claims that the local authorities rejected Interpol’s offer to help with missing Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH370.
Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein also supported the inspector-general of police’s remarks at a joint press conference here today.
“We work with all agencies, including Interpol,” Khalid told reporters here today.
ABC News reported yesterday an anonymous Western law enforcement agent as saying that Malaysia has repeatedly rejected the intergovernmental police agency’s offers to help investigate the aviation mystery, despite confirmation that the Boeing 777 was diverted deliberately.
Other unidentified law enforcement officials were also quoted as saying that Malaysia’s alleged refusal to take up Interpol’s offer may have caused leads into the mysterious disappearance of MH370 to grow cold.
Hishammuddin said today that he also has access to international law enforcement agencies due to the ongoing MH370 crisis, and insisted that Malaysia has welcomed all who have offered help.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak told a news conference yesterday that MH370 was diverted deliberately after someone on board switched off the Boeing 777’s communications systems.
On March 8, the jetliner carrying 239 people made a sharp turn from its last communication with air traffic controllers in Kuala Lumpur before it would have to come into contact with Vietnamese controllers and flew westward instead, away from its intended route to Beijing.
Najib said yesterday that search and rescue efforts in the South China Sea would be called off and pointed to two corridors where the plane could possibly be located based on satellite data: a northern arc from northern Thailand to the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan in central Asia, or a southern one from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean.
