KUALA LUMPUR, March 26 — Malaysia has been targeted by international criticism over flight MH370 due to Putrajaya’s “unprecedented failure” in handling the crisis, PAS MP Khalid Samad has said.

The Shah Alam MP added that the government should also not be proud of the fact that 26 countries were currently looking for the missing Malaysia Airlines aircraft, claiming that this reflected a severe lack of capabilities on the part of local authorities.

"We failed, that is why the whole world has to help us.

"There is nothing to be proud of; what this is is an unprecedented failure," he told reporters here at a news conference.

Khalid also said there was no need for Malaysia to spend "lots of cash" to upgrade its radar technology, following allegations of weaknesses in the area, saying that the failure to detect the missing flight on March 8 was "human error."

"The radar did its work, its the people who should have taken immediate action did not do so," he claimed.

Malaysia’s military radar operators failed to notice MH370 as it flew across the peninsula on the day it went missing, and only discovered the fact the following day.

Malaysia is currently co-ordinating a multinational search effort to locate the missing plane and the 239 on board.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak revealed on Monday night that analysis by UK commercial satellite firm Inmarsat and the Air Accidents Investigation Board (AAIB) concluded that MH370 was flown toward the Indian Ocean after it deviated from its flight to Beijing.

Shortly before that, MAS informed the families of passengers and crew that it must “assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH370 has been lost and that none of those on board survived.”

Today, Khalid demanded the government issue a formal apology to the families of the passengers and crew who were on board the flight, and "admit" the government's mishandling of the situation.

Putrajaya previously brushed aside suggestions that it should apologise to the families over the manner it was heading the search efforts.

MH370 and the 239 people on board disappeared less than an hour after the Beijing-bound flight left Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 12.41am on March 8.

The plane and its passengers remain missing despite over two weeks of intensive searching by a multinational effort.