17 March 2014 (14:14 UTC-07 Tango)/15 Jumada l-Ula 1435/26 Esfand 1392/17 Ding-Mao 4712
“It happened outside Afghanistan and you can see that even countries with very advanced equipment and facilities cannot figure out where it went. So we also do not have any information as it is an external issue.”-Zabihullah Mujahid, member of a Afghan Mujahideen group
“We wish we had an opportunity to hijack such a plane!”-attributed to Pakistani Mujahideen
“No, this plane did not fly over Kyrgyzstan’s territory. We have two military air bases, a U.S. and a Russian one, deployed in our country and equipped with pretty serious radar equipment, so they would have detected this plane.”-Dair Tokobayev, Kyrgyzstan’s main civilian airport Manas
Greek news sources report that a Greek oil barge was told to avoid the Malacca Straight because of a possible debris field. It was spotted by an internet crowd sourcing op, but has not been confirmed.
There are now unconfirmed reports that MH370/CZ748 was hijacked by a military pilot: “The person who had control over the aircraft has a solid knowledge of avionics and navigation, and left a clean track. It passed low over Kelantan……It’s possible that the aircraft had hugged the terrain in some areas, that are mountainous to avoid radar detection…..While the ongoing search is divided into two massive areas, the data that the investigating team is collating is leading us more towards the north.”-unnamed investigator quoted by Malaysian news media
Wall Street Journal Southeast Asia reports that the search area has widened so much it now includes a route all the way to the Caspian Sea north of Iran, and all the way south to the west coast of Australia!
Australia and France have now joined the search: “We are not at liberty to reveal information from specific countries. As the coordinating authority we are gathering all information as part of the on-going search and rescue operation……The number of countries involved in the search and rescue operation has increased to 26.”-Hishammuddin Hussein, Malaysian Defense Minister and acting Transportation Minister