World
Viewing gallery in Kuala Lumpur: An artwork conveying well-wishes for the passengers and crew of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.
Eyewitness reports of a possible sighting of missing Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 flying near the Maldives have been officially discounted in a statement issued by the Maldives National Defence Force.
These reports were also confirmed by Malaysia's Transport Minister, Hishamuddin Hussein.
"Based on the monitoring up to date, no indication of Flight MH370 has been observed on any military radars in the country,” the statement said.
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"Furthermore, the data of radars at Maldives airports have also been analysed and shows no indication of the said flight. The Maldives National Defence Force will continue to render any assistance required by the Maldives Police Service and international authorities on the search for the missing flight and related issues.”
Earlier reports had quoted several residents of Kudahuvadhoo in Dhaal atoll who saw a low-flying aircraft heading in a south-easterly direction on the morning of March 8, prompting speculation that it could have been Malaysian Airlines flight MH370.
The residents said the aircraft had markings similar to the missing Malaysian Airlines plane.
The Maldives news website Minivan News quoted five eyewitnesses who said they saw the aircraft. “It was about 6:30 in the morning, I heard a loud noise and went out to see what it was,” Adam Saeed, a teacher at Kudahuvadhoo school, told the Maldives news website Minivan News.
“I saw a flight flying very low and it had a red straight line in the middle of it. The flight was travelling north-west to south-east,” he said.
Another islander, who identified himself as Hamzath, told Minivan News that he had also seen a low-flying plane heading from north-west to south-east.
“People started talking about it when they realised that the flight that we saw had the same characteristics as of the missing plane,” Hamzath said.
‘‘We are still not saying it is the same plane, we just wanted to report it just in case.”
Another suggested that the reports had been exaggerated.
“A plane did fly near the island,” said the witness who was not named. “It wasn’t that big, as big as people say.”
“These days, people will be out fishing every morning. Around 30 people would always be there in the morning – but no one talked about it then. If it was that noticeable, loud and big, people would talk."
When asked about the possibility of a plane of this size landing on an isolated airstrip in the atolls, Maldives National Defence Force spokesman Major Hussain Ali said this was not possible.
“If you are asking are there any landing strips outside of the main commercial airports, the answer is no,” Major Hussain said.
Location of Kaafu Atoll within the Maldives. 
Authorities are investigating what's left of debris believed to belong to a plane, that washed ashore several small islands in the . The investigation began as a result of photos of the debris being uploaded to the social networking  . Some of the debris is reported to have washed ashore as early as May 31 and was found on a beach owned by the Banyan Tree Vabbinfaru resort, located in . In the past few days, several other pieces of debris were recovered on at least three other islands. Authorities are trying to determine if it may be part of  (MH370). Last week, a piece of a wing known as a , reported to be from MH370, was found washed ashore on  Island.

Pictures taken of the objects recovered in the Maldives on, reportedly, May 31, were posted to Facebook by an employee of the resort. That prompted authorities to launch an investigation into the debris, but before it could be examined, it had already been sent away for disposal. The photographs show a large white object, possibly two, stained with  and appear to be made of a  and honeycomb material. The objects appear to be several  in length and width and in one photo where the paint is severely peeled, red letters "IC" can be seen.  Those pieces, along with others, were taken away and disposed of as trash. When authorities discovered the photographs, they returned to the site, but only found a small, five to seven  (about 13–18 ) piece of debris they say doesn't appear to be part of a plane. 

According to the resort's manager Mr. Naseem, the bigger pieces of debris and other waste were taken away and disposed of in the usual way. He added other forms of debris and trash with no value, such as buoys and suspected military waste, wash up on the islands all the time, especially during  season. Local residents and resort workers regularly collect trash which is sent to the garbage island  where it's sorted, exported for recycling, or burned. Reports say at the time the debris was collected, no one suspected it could be from MH370.

"Although some of it was taken to Thilafushi, there is still a five or a seven inch piece on the resort. It was left because it is small. The management has decided to hand it over to the Police", said an unnamed official to ''SunOnline'', who said authorities don't know if any of the debris taken away has been destroyed. The Serious and Organized Crime Unit of the  and experts from the  are heading the investigation.

Yesterday, reports stated several more pieces of debris, one piece measuring some eight feet by two feet (about 2.4 by 0.6 ), were found on ,  and  and washed ashore sometime in the past few days. One piece appears to have a serial number on the side, possibly reading '021411270507.' Initially residents who found the debris took it home. "A resident had found the debris and taken it home. Nobody had thought twice about it then. When he heard about the discovery in Vabbinfaru resort we immediately called the Police," said Mohamed Ibrahim, a councilman for Fehendhoo Island, to ''Haveeru Daily''.

MH370, while flying from ,  to , , vanished without a trace on March 8, 2014. All 239 passengers and crew are believed to be dead. On the day the plane went missing, residents on the small Maldive island of  claimed to have seen a very "low flying jumbo jet" crash into the . Some also noted the colors appeared to resemble that of a  plane. "I’ve never seen a jet flying so low over our island before. We've seen seaplanes, but I'm sure that this was not one of those. I could even make out the doors on the plane clearly", one resident was quoted as saying to the newspaper ''''. Some claim the plane appeared to be headed in the direction of .

According to '''', ''Haveeru'' reported the witnesses were interviewed by authorities who deemed their statements to be truthful, but Maldive military officials along with  officials say no such aircraft was in Maldive airspace at the time MH370 went missing. "Based on the monitoring up to date, no indication of Flight MH370 has been observed on any military radars in the country Maldives. Furthermore, the data of radars at Maldives airports have also been analysed and shows no indication of the said flight", said Malaysian Transport Minister Hishamuddin Hussein.