Publicly-available flight information appear to back website Asia Sentinel’s claims that Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak had gone on a European holiday, after attending a working visit in the Netherlands to deal with the Flight MH17 issue a fortnight ago.
Information from the popular flight tracking website FlightRadar24 shows that the Royal Malaysian Air Force VIP transport 9M-NAA had been seen at several European airports, including at some of the locations named in the report.
However, there is public data on who was onboard the aircraft.
Additionally, there appears to be gaps in the data making it unclear if either Najib or the aircraft had been it Cannes, France, as claimed.
The aircraft may not be ferrying Najib as it can be also used by the Agong and other heads of state, ministers, deputy ministers, foreign dignitaries, and senior civil servants.
On Wednesday, Asia Sentinel reported, that “the prime minister and (his wife) Rosmah (Mansor) flew to Paris.”
“They were reportedly joined by Chinese playboy Taek Jho Low and the former prime minister of Qatar, then are believed to have gone on to Sardinia in Italy, to Cannes on the French Cote d’Azur, then back to Sardinia with what was described as a large entourage of Chinese Malaysian tycoons.
"From Sardinia, the group flew to Rome before returning to London,” it reported.
Netherlands-France-Switzerland-Italy
This supposedly took place starting Aug 1, after Najib held ameeting and joint press conference with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte at The Hague about the MH17 crisis on July 31.
The report quoted anonymous sources and claims that the prime minister’s press secretary Azlin Alias did not respond to inquiries on the supposed trip.
“It was a holiday planned some time ago, well before the tragedies (of MH370 and MH17). Yet, it would have been prudent to postpone it given all the things the country is going through,” one source reportedly said.
According to earlier news reports, Najib was supposed to travel to the Netherlands on July 30, arriving on July 31 for a two-day working visit to The Hague and Hilversum, in the Netherlands.
However, according to flight information from FlightRadar24, the aircraft 9M-NAA had actually departed from Subang Airport on July 28 at 6.40pm, to Bangkok.
It remained in Bangkok for about two days before flying to Schipol Airport in Amsterdam, with a stop of about two hours in Dubai. It reached Amsterdam on July 31 at 8.03am local time (2.03pm Malaysian time).
It then departed for Amsterdam the day after at 10.08am local time (4.08pm Malaysian time), but the destination is not recorded.
Two days later on Aug 3, the aircraft was seen leaving from Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport at 2.39pm local time (10.39pm Malaysian time).
Again, the destination for this flight was not recorded, but it was recorded as landing in Basel, Switzerland about four hours later. An average flight from Paris to Basel takes 1 hour and 23 minutes.
From here, there are no further records of the aircraft’s movements for six days, until it departed Basel on Aug 9 at 10.09am local time (6.09pm Malaysian time) for Sardinia.
About seven hours after the flight to Sardinia, the aircraft appeared in Rome and was on a flight to London.
It takes just under two hours to fly direct from Basel to Sardinia, and about 75 minutes to fly direct from Sardinia to Rome.
While there is no indication of a Sardinia-Cannes-Sardinia trip based on FlightRadar24’s information, it is possible that the entourage had used other means of transport for the trip, or that 9M-MAA trip on that leg was somehow omitted from the records.
Tracker can be turned off
FlightRadar24 uses each aircraft’s Automatic Dependent Surveillance - Broadcast (ADS-B) system to track its flight.
However, the system can be disabled to make an aircraft untraceable to the online service without affecting other air traffic controllers, who may track the aircraft sing radar or manual reports via radio.
9M-NAA’s presence at these European airports is yet unexplained, but it still does not necessarily place Najib, Rosmah or any of those mentioned in the report were in those cities.
If Najib had been indeed been on holiday there as Asia Sentinalreports, it would seem that he was working during his break.
On Aug 8, the prime minister issued a press statement commenting on Malaysia Airline’s delisting from the stock market.
Information from the popular flight tracking website FlightRadar24 shows that the Royal Malaysian Air Force VIP transport 9M-NAA had been seen at several European airports, including at some of the locations named in the report.
However, there is public data on who was onboard the aircraft.
Additionally, there appears to be gaps in the data making it unclear if either Najib or the aircraft had been it Cannes, France, as claimed.The aircraft may not be ferrying Najib as it can be also used by the Agong and other heads of state, ministers, deputy ministers, foreign dignitaries, and senior civil servants.
On Wednesday, Asia Sentinel reported, that “the prime minister and (his wife) Rosmah (Mansor) flew to Paris.”
“They were reportedly joined by Chinese playboy Taek Jho Low and the former prime minister of Qatar, then are believed to have gone on to Sardinia in Italy, to Cannes on the French Cote d’Azur, then back to Sardinia with what was described as a large entourage of Chinese Malaysian tycoons.
"From Sardinia, the group flew to Rome before returning to London,” it reported.
Netherlands-France-Switzerland-Italy
This supposedly took place starting Aug 1, after Najib held ameeting and joint press conference with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte at The Hague about the MH17 crisis on July 31.
The report quoted anonymous sources and claims that the prime minister’s press secretary Azlin Alias did not respond to inquiries on the supposed trip.
“It was a holiday planned some time ago, well before the tragedies (of MH370 and MH17). Yet, it would have been prudent to postpone it given all the things the country is going through,” one source reportedly said.
According to earlier news reports, Najib was supposed to travel to the Netherlands on July 30, arriving on July 31 for a two-day working visit to The Hague and Hilversum, in the Netherlands.
However, according to flight information from FlightRadar24, the aircraft 9M-NAA had actually departed from Subang Airport on July 28 at 6.40pm, to Bangkok.It remained in Bangkok for about two days before flying to Schipol Airport in Amsterdam, with a stop of about two hours in Dubai. It reached Amsterdam on July 31 at 8.03am local time (2.03pm Malaysian time).
It then departed for Amsterdam the day after at 10.08am local time (4.08pm Malaysian time), but the destination is not recorded.
Two days later on Aug 3, the aircraft was seen leaving from Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport at 2.39pm local time (10.39pm Malaysian time).
Again, the destination for this flight was not recorded, but it was recorded as landing in Basel, Switzerland about four hours later. An average flight from Paris to Basel takes 1 hour and 23 minutes.
From here, there are no further records of the aircraft’s movements for six days, until it departed Basel on Aug 9 at 10.09am local time (6.09pm Malaysian time) for Sardinia.
About seven hours after the flight to Sardinia, the aircraft appeared in Rome and was on a flight to London.
It takes just under two hours to fly direct from Basel to Sardinia, and about 75 minutes to fly direct from Sardinia to Rome.
While there is no indication of a Sardinia-Cannes-Sardinia trip based on FlightRadar24’s information, it is possible that the entourage had used other means of transport for the trip, or that 9M-MAA trip on that leg was somehow omitted from the records.
Tracker can be turned off
FlightRadar24 uses each aircraft’s Automatic Dependent Surveillance - Broadcast (ADS-B) system to track its flight.
However, the system can be disabled to make an aircraft untraceable to the online service without affecting other air traffic controllers, who may track the aircraft sing radar or manual reports via radio.
9M-NAA’s presence at these European airports is yet unexplained, but it still does not necessarily place Najib, Rosmah or any of those mentioned in the report were in those cities.
If Najib had been indeed been on holiday there as Asia Sentinalreports, it would seem that he was working during his break.
On Aug 8, the prime minister issued a press statement commenting on Malaysia Airline’s delisting from the stock market.
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