According to Flightglobal, Malaysian acting transport minister Hishammuddin Hussein said authorities had checked out the eyewitness reports of a "low flying jumbo jet" over the Maldives the morning Malaysia Flight 370 disappeared, and found they were "not true."
Several Maldives residents told the local Haveeru Daily newspaper they saw a large white aircraft with red stripes, matching the livery on the missing jet.
The reported sightings did not match with the final satellite communication from the plane, which indicates it turned west, into the Strait of Malacca.
It has been 12 days since the plane took off from Kuala Lumpur, headed for Beijing, and a massive search has found no trace of the plane, which had 239 people on board.