VietNamNet Bridge – That was the statement by the head of the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam, Mr. Lai Xuan Thanh.

Earlier, speaking to international reporters on May 2, the head of the Malaysian Aviation Agency, Mr. Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, said that Vietnam was tardy in reporting the missing signal of the MH370 after it was handed over by Malaysia.

Azharuddin claimed that the process normally takes only up to 5 minutes, but in this case it took 17 minutes. “Why did Vietnam take too much time to inform Malaysia that they did not get the signal?” Azharuddin questioned.

According to him, at the time the MH370 flight was handed over to Vietnam, the plane was already in the East Sea and the aircraft was officially controlled by Vietnam’s air controllers.

Mr. Lai Xuan Thanh told Tuoi Tre Newspaper that he had heard this information through the media but he had not yet received official information from the Civil Aviation Administration of Malaysia.

Thanh said that, at the time Malaysian air controllers handed over the MH370 to Vietnam, both flight management agencies were unable to identify whether the plane had passed the IGARY waypoint to enter the Ho Chi Minh flight information region or FIR  or not. Both agencies of Vietnam and Malaysia lost the signals of this plane on their radar screens and they could not define the moment of the disappearance.

Possibly, at the time of the handover from Malaysia, when the signal for the MH370 disappeared simultaneously on both radar screens, the pilot diverted the flight and did not enter the Ho Chi Minh FIR.

Therefore, it is impossible to say that Vietnam delayed in receiving handover of Malaysia air controllers, Thanh said.

He also said that he will communicate with the Malaysian Aviation Administration to clarify the information.

Na Son