Surface search begins in the South China Sea

Search and rescue opened where the aircraft was last seen on civil radar: the Gulf of Thailand and approaches to the South China Sea. Vietnam, Malaysia, China and others flew and sailed a corridor that MH370 had already left. Source-specific west-track chronology, not a single “not shared” line: Hishammuddin 1 May 2014 — military playback ~08:30 MYT 8 March, Air Force ops ~09:00, minister informed ~10:30 of a possible turn-back, a military aircraft west at 10:54; KL ARCC was only informed by RMAF of the western last-known at 22:30 MYT (~12-hour operational gap). Thai Surat Thani paint (~01:28 MYT) was disclosed 18–19 March. Hishammuddin 13 Mar 2014: raw military-radar data would not ordinarily be released publicly but had been shared with partners including the US and China. Kok Soo Chon 2019: the investigation possessed the complete original radar data; unpublished because classified. Indonesia 14–19 Mar: Lhokseumawe and Sabang did not detect a crossing. This misdirection is now a standard case study in why ICAO required better distress tracking.