MH370: Govt can't confirm reports without verification, says Hisham

KLUANG - The government can't confirm any reports on MAS flight MH370 unless they can be verified by the relevant authorities.

Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said the authorities have received a lot of reports and leads, including from local and foreign media organisations, but when they investigated the leads, they turned out to be baseless.

"Unless we can have verifications, we can't comment on these reports," said Hishammuddin.

He was commenting on the New Straits Times frontpage report yesterday which said that the co-pilot of MH370 Fariq Abd Hamid made a call from his mobile phone while the plane was flying low over Penang on the day the plane went missing.

"If this did happened, we would have known about it earlier," said Hishammuddin.

He was speaking to the media after performing the 'Solat Hajat' with the congregation of Nurul Iman Mosque in Taman Sri Lambak here.

He also named the two officers from the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) who have been absorbed into the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC).

They are Noor Izhar Baharin, the principal assistant director of DCA and the officer in charge of SAR and Air Safety of the DCA and Muhammad Irfan Ahmad Baidove, the assistant director of the Kuala Lumpur Aeronautical Rescue Coordination Centre.

"This is important because JACC, as the body responsible for the SAR efforts, must have a direct contact with Kuala Lumpur," said Hishammuddin.