No way MH370 flew north - Indian traffic controller

This is because countries neighbouring the borders of Kazakhstan to the north of Thailand are known to have strong military radar, especially India.

Kolkata air traffic controllers’ association secretary Sugata Pramanik rejected the possibility of the missing aircraft to have crossed the Indian airspace to get to the Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan border, a possibility raised by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak on Saturday.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) has radars in multiple installations across the country and it is inconceivable that none of them spotted the odd blip with no flight clearance," he told the Times of India.

He said the flight may have been able to avoid being detected by civilian radar but cannot escape from the IAF radars.

The daily said there are nine air defence identification zones in India, 24 hours daily to prevent any intrusion into the Indian airspace.

He added that if indeed the MH370 had flown towards Kazakhstan, it could not have avoided the Kolkatta Flight Information Region.

Another air traffic controller, Sunshil Mondal said it would have been chaotic if the IAF had detected any aircraft without flying clearance to have entered its airpace.

He said the AIF would have even ordered its military aircrafts to shoot down the unidentified aircraft. “But that did not happen on March 8,” he said.

Ascend Worldwide safety and insurance director Paul Hayes who supported the statement by the two told Bloomberg that he does not believe any aircraft could enter the Indian airspace, undetected.

India on Sunday had suspended all search operations in Andaman and Nicobar Islands and in the Bay of Bengal.

Colonel Harmit Singh, spokesman for India's army, navy and air force command in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands said India is now awaiting for new request from the Malaysian government.

On Saturday, Najib said the aviation authorities and their international counterparts have determined that the plane’s last communication with the satellite was in one of two possible corridors: a northern corridor stretching approximately from the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to northern Thailand, or a southern corridor stretching approximately from Indonesia to the southern Indian ocean.