The authorities are not at liberty to tell the public if other countries have shared their radar and satellite data that could provide clues on the fate of missing Flight MH370.
 
Speaking at the daily press briefings on MH370 at KLIA this evening, Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) director-general Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said that radar data was priviledged information.
 
Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein chimed in, stressing that Malaysia is the only country to have made public its radar data.
 
"The only one that is out in the open is now Malaysia and that we've done so in the interest of finding the aircraft," he said.
 
Based on the information released from the authorities earlier, it has been widely speculated that MH370 could have been picked up by both Thai and Indonesian primary radar, used by their military.
 
Hishammuddin confirmed that there are no new developments with regards to Indonesian radar data, but a request has been forwarded to the Indonesian authorities to re-evaluate their satellite and radar data.

Thai authorities have thus far confirmed that its radar data corroborate with the Malaysian authority's belief that the plane could had made a sharp turn off the east coast of Malaysia and headed towards the Malacca Straits.

 
Apart from neighbouring countries, other countries with access to satellite assets or those within the spheres of the two "search corridors" have been asked to scrutinise whatever data they have that could help the search, said Hishammuddin.
 
Currently, the search for MH370 is concentrated on two "corridors" - The northern corridor which stretches from northern Thailand to the borders of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan; and, the southern corridor which stretches from Indonesia to the southern parts of the Indian Ocean.
 
The two corridors were established after an international team of investigators, led by Malaysia, poured through data collected by a satellite owned by Inmarsat, which orbits the earth at 35,888KM above the Indian Ocean.
 
It has been established that MH370's key communication systems - the transponder and Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (Acars) - were deliberately switched off shortly after takeoff, but the plane had emitted six hourly "pings" that were picked up by the satellite, which allowed investigators to approximate where the signals came from.

Below are salient points from the press briefing: 

The search
 
International efforts involve four main tasks: 

- Gather information from satellites

- Study radar data from relevant countries

- Increasing air and surface assets used in the search

- Roping in more experts as investigators

The entire search area is now 2.24 million sq nautical miles. Each corridor  has been divided into seven quadrants each of 400 nautical miles by 400 nautical miles – or 160,000 square nautical miles per quadrant.

 
By gathering and analyzing whatever available radar and satellite data, the investigators hope to narrow down the search areas soon.

Where to search?

But for now, both the northern and southern corridors are given "equal emphasis" despite several countries already reporting that they didn't spot the plane in their airspace.

International assistance

 
Among the countries not within the search corridors but have agreed to lend their air and surface military assets were New Zealand, Japan, South Korea and United Arab Emirates.

China and Australia are Malaysia's keep partners in the respective corridors' search.

 
When was the Acars switched off?
 
The authorities said that they cannot determine exactly when the Acars was switched off, apart from knowing that it happened after 1.07am on March 8.

Previously, the authorities said with a "high degree of certainty" that this happened just before the plane reached the East Coast of Malaysia.

Police investigations

 

Investigations into passengers and crew aboard of MH370 still on-going. In time, the police will disclose more about the airport landing strips software found in pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah's flight simulator.

Familiarity with routes

 
Neither of the pilot or co-pilot Fariq Ab Hamid would be familiar with the northern or southern corridors as MAS do not have frequent flights through these areas.

Reprogramming the plane

 
The plane was programmed to fly from KLIA to Beijing. However, authorities cannot rule out the possibility that a new course was charted on the cockpit computers.

Diplomatic matters

Malaysia hopes more countries will share their primary radar data, which is a military privilege. 

 
ASEAN countries, especially Indonesia, has been urged to "re-look" at not only their satellite but other data. US satellite data for ocean areas in the southern corridor have also been requested.
 
Malaysia's past cordial relationship with all neighbour countries concerned has helped and the prime minister has made phone calls to many heads of states seeking assistance. Of the fourteen countries contacted, 12 were in the northern corridor.