March 13th, Malaysian defense minister and acting transport minister Hishammuddin Hussein said at a press conference, so far, Malaysian planes are still searching the area in the South China Sea. Malaysia has decided to make an exception to share primary radar data with Chinese military and U.S. military, in order to facilitate its further search.
Mr. Hishammuddin Hussein said, Malaysia has dispatched aircrafts to investigate alleged claims debris found by Chinese satellite imagery on March 13th, but nothing was found. Mr. Hishammuddin Hussein added, they have reported to Chinese embassy in the Malaysian capital about the situation.
Mr. Hishammuddin Hussein explained the radar signal over the Strait of Malacca. He said: "It was suggested that there was a possibility that the aircraft had passed over the Strait of Malacca. We have a duty to investigate any possibility. We owe it to the families of those on the flight to follow up every lead and on that basis we dispatched extra ships and aircraft to search the area. However our main effort has always been in the South China Sea."
"We are working very closely with the FAA (US Federal Aviation Administration) and the NTSB (US National Transport Safety Board) on the issue of the possible air turn back. They have indicated that there were reasonable grounds for the Malaysian authorities to deploy their forces to conduct searches on the western side of the Malaysian peninsula."
"In this case we have put the search effort above our national security. We have shared our data with our international partners including the US and China."
Mr. Hishammuddin Hussein said there are currently 43 ships and 40 planes searching the missing flight, among which, there are 26 ships and 25 planes searching in the South China Sea, 17 ships and 15 planes searching in the Strait of Malacca.
At last, Mr. Hishammuddin Hussein said: "This is our duty to search the missing flight. We will never give up."