Malaysian military primary-radar track
17:21–18:22 UTC · westbound after IGARI
Primary radar paints a left turn off the Beijing airway, a crossing of the peninsula, and a track up the Strait of Malacca until 18:22 UTC. Altitude/speed blip-to-blip in the file are noisier than 777 performance.
After secondary radar was lost at 17:21:13 UTC, Royal Malaysian Air Force primary radar continued to paint an unidentified return consistent with MH370. The 2018 report reconstructs a right then left onto heading 273°, a path parallel to airway M765 toward Kota Bharu, a Penang-area passage, a 4,800 ft paint near Pulau Perak at 18:01:59, a gap, then a reappearance 18:15:25–18:22:12 at about 29,500 ft, 516 kt, heading 285°, last about 195 nm from Butterworth. The report itself warns that recorded altitude and speed changes blip-to-blip were well beyond aircraft performance — the file is a track of a 777, not a flight-data recorder. Civilian primary at Kota Bharu is consistent. No 7700/7600/7500 squawk. This track is the reason “the aircraft turned back” is treated as established even though no wreckage has been found on that path. Disclosure chronology is a separate fact family: minister ~10:30 MYT 8 March, KL ARCC 22:30, Thai Surat Thani 18–19 March. ‘Not released publicly’ is confirmed; ‘withheld from US/China investigators’ is not supported by the named Malaysian statements. See evi-radar-latency.
Sources
- Malaysian Safety Investigation Report 2018, military radar chapter
Related
Turn back across the Malay Peninsula
17:21–17:52 UTC
Last primary radar contact
18:22:12 UTC
The diversion likely resulted from manual inputs
Penang
Westbound primary-radar track · FO phone register
West-track disclosure lag — ministerial 10:30, ARCC 22:30, Thai 9–10 days
8 March and 18–19 March 2014
RMAF notifies KL ARCC of the western military track
22:30 MYT 8 March 2014 · ~12 hours after the minister
Secondary radar lost
17:21:13 UTC
First officer’s phone registers at Penang
17:52:27 UTC
JORN not tasked the night of 7–8 March 2014
Australian over-the-horizon radar · peacetime status
MH370: The Forensic Evidence
Capt. John Cox · Sit Down With Sid · 13 June 2026 · 37:10
MH370: The Untold Story / The Cover-Up
Peter Stefanovic · Sky News 2020 · later Amazon two-part
MH370 Disappearance: Minute by Minute
Licensed 53-minute feature · 2025–26 reprints
Deep Dive: MH370 Episode Three — The Turn Back
Deep Dive Podcast Network · 28 September 2023 · 31:12
Thailand discloses Surat Thani military-radar paint
18–19 March 2014 · ~9–10 days after disappearance
Indonesia: Lhokseumawe and Sabang did not paint MH370
14–19 March 2014 statements
The radar story and the 9 March cyberattack
Working chart · tracks, delays, and a spear-phish of the investigation
BD764 and BE144 — named radar feeds, and a gap after 18:02:59 UTC
Secondary ends with the transponder · primary westbound · later points still to source