Search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 enters its 10th day with no sign of plane

By Cindy Wockner in Kuala Lumpur, Andrew Jefferson, Elissa Doherty and wires
News Corp Australia
March 17, 2014 1:15PM

CCTV Footage of MH370 Captain and co-pilot0:14

Still no sign of plane more than nine days after it vanished
New theory it may have landed in Afghanistan or Pakistan

MISSING Flight MH370 may have used a dangerous technique employed by military pilots to fly low over mountainous terrain and avoid detection shortly after it turned away from its original course.

As authorities probing the mysterious disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines plane focused on the pilots, an unnamed source in Malaysian newspaper the New Straits Times said the Boeing 777 may have dropped to just 5000ft to defeat commercial radar.

“The person who had the control over the aircraft has a solid knowledge of avionics and navigation and left a clean track,” the unnamed source said.

“It’s possible that the aircraft had hugged the terrain in some areas which are mountainous to avoid radar detection.”

Officials are reportedly looking at the possibility that whoever was flying the plane used “terrain masking”, something used by military pilots to hug terrain and avoid detection.

Although possible, it is thought such a manouevre would be dangerous and put extreme pressure on the jetliner.

The newspaper also said investigators are looking at the possibility the plane took advantage of the busy airways over the Bay of Bengal — far to the west of its intended flight path — so as not to raise the suspicion of military radar.

SPECIAL REPORT: FLIGHT INTO UNKNOWN HORROR

More than nine days after the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing which was carrying 239 people vanished, the ever-widening search is now covering 11 different countries as well as “deep and remote oceans”.

Several new theories have emerged to explain how it disappeared and where it currently is, including that it may have been flown to Taliban-controlled bases on the border of Afghanistan and North West Pakistan.