6 missteps in Malaysia Flight 370 investigation

Here's a look at some of the notable issues raised by critics: Malaysian military radar captured signatures of a plane that is believed to have been Flight 370, but it wasn't immediately noticed, CNN reports. The radar signatures offered evidence that the flight had turned west after its last contact with air traffic controllers, and that contact was lost over the Strait of Malacca. But radar operators did not see it in real time, meaning an opportunity to track the plane while it was in flight may have been lost. While the radar data was the key reason for expanding the search west of Malaysia, it took officials until March 11 -- three days after the disappearance -- to explain why they were looking so far off the plane's expected course. All the while, search efforts continued in places where data showed it could not have been -- the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea. Early briefings seemed chaotic; it was unclear who was in charge. "Well, I think they didn't have a proper plan in place for such an accident like this," aviation analyst Alastair Rosenschein told CNN's Isa Soares. "They were speaking off the hymn sheet, if you like, and they were making things up as they went along. And they said things, and then they withdrew them without actually saying they withdrew them." Early on, an official inaccurately described two men traveling on stolen passports as resembling a black Italian soccer player. "Do you know of a footballer by the name of Batolli?" Malaysian Civil Aviation Director Azharuddin Abdul Rahman asked reporters at an early briefing. "He's an Italian. Do you know how he looks like? Battoli, Battoli, Balloteli, Balloteli." He was trying, in a roundabout way, to say the men were black, like Italian soccer player Mario Ballotelli. The men turned out to be Iranians seeking asylum, according to investigators. They are not believed to have had any links to terror. From "none of those on board survived" to "hoping against hope" On March 24, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said the plane's flight had "ended" in the southern Indian Ocean. Not long before that, Malaysia Airlines sent a text messages to some relatives, telling them that "beyond any reasonable doubt ... none of those on board survived." But on Saturday -- after family members had angrily blasted the conclusion as premature and lacking hard evidence -- acting Minister of Transport Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters that he had not entirely given up hope of finding survivors. "Even hoping against hope, no matter how remote, of course, we are praying and we will continue our search for the possible survivors," he said. On Monday, Hishammuddin further seemed to further walk back the account offered by the government-owned airline, noting Najib's carefully worded statement that did not mention a crash or a lack of survivors. Details also at