IOW, they had an unknown.
<>IOW, they had an unknown.<>
An “unknown” flying in their airspace, over their territory, over their cities, over their military bases — and they didn’t send up any jets to check it out!!! Yep — they were really on the ball.
Anyway by March 12th they knew that that “unknown” was the 777 but were too embarrassed about their handling of it to admit it.
Remember that shortly after it turned around Vietnam ATC contacted Malaysian ATC to tell them — but Malaysian ATC never responded.