Kazakhstan says detected no unidentified planes when Malaysian jetliner vanished

ALMATY, March 17 (Reuters) - Kazakhstan said on Monday it had not detected any "unsanctioned use" of its air space by any planes on March 8, making it unlikely that a missing Malaysia Arlines jetliner could have been diverted along a northern route via Thailand.

Malaysia Airlines MASM.KL Flight MH370, which vanished with 239 people aboard, could hypothetically have reached the Central Asian nation's air space, but it would have been detected there, the Kazakh Civil Aviation Committee said in a detailed statement sent to Reuters.

Malaysia Airlines planes had made nine regular flights to and from Europe over Kazakhstan's territory on March 8, it said.

(Reporting by Raushan Nurshayeva; Writing by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Catherine Evans)

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Keywords: MALAYSIA AIRLINES/KAZAKHSTAN