DAMIR SAGOLJ/REUTERSJust 30 minutes after Malaysia Airline Flight 370 disappeared, military in neighboring Thailand detected an aircraft that could have been the missing jet - but never said anything because Malaysia didn't ask.
Thailand's Air Force spokesman Montol Suchookom said Tuesday that radar showed a twisting flight pattern leading to the Strait of Malacca in the wee hours of March 8, when the passenger flight vanished.
Asked why it took so long for the Thai military to release that information, he replied, 'Because we did not pay any attention to it. The Royal Thai Air force only looks after any threats against our country, so anything that did not look like a threat to us, we simply look at it without taking actions.'
Besides, he said, Malaysian officials never specifically asked about any plane showing up on Thai radar.
RELATED: SEE: MALAYSIA AIRLINES PILOTS CAUGHT ON CAMERA BEFORE DISAPPEARANCE
The already bizarre disappearance 10 days ago of Boeing 777, which was carrying 239 people, went farther down the rabbit hole Tuesday as Malaysian authorities said they still didn't know what happened to the Beijing-bound flight, and the search area grew to an area about the same size as the continent of Australia.
Most of those onboard were from China or Taiwan and fury mounted among their relatives, who threatened a hunger strike if officials in Malaysia didn't start sharing more information.
RELATED: GIRLFRIEND OF MALAYSIA AIRLINES CO-PILOT COMFORTS HIS FAMILYHundreds of grieving relatives are hunkered down in a Beijing hotel, waiting for word.
'What we want is the truth. Don't let them become victims of politics,' a middle-aged woman raged Tuesday.
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A male relative called the Malaysian government liars.
'You're always going back and forth ... Because you're always tricking us, telling us lies,' he said. China has castigated Malaysia and accused it of ineptitude as investigators released a series of reports that contradicted each other and offered no solace to relatives.
RELATED: MALAYSIAN GOV'T CHANGES FLIGHT 370'S TIME AGAIN
'China has all along demanded that the Malaysian side and Malaysia Airlines earnestly respond to the reasonable requests of the Chinese families,' sad Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei on Tuesday.
A representative for Malaysia Airlines in Beijing apologized for not being able to release information.
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'I can accept the criticisms and mistakes that you have pointed out,' he told angry relatives.
'But the problem is that some information and material we really have no way to access ... So I beg for your forgiveness,' he said.
That did not appease family members, who shouted after airline representatives.
'Tell us the truth!' they shouted.
'We're going on [a] hunger strike,' a woman told reporters. 'The families are on the point of collapse,' she said.
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