MALAYSIA's defence minister has defended his military's failure to scramble a fighter jet to follow a Malaysian airliner when it veered off course and vanished two months ago, saying it was not seen as a hostile object.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 became invisible to civilian radar when its transponder stopped transmitting during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8. The plane was tracked by military radar after it turned in a westerly direction across Peninsular Malaysia.

In response to criticism that fighter jets should have been scrambled to investigate the then-unidentified flight through Malaysian air space, defence minister Hishammuddin Hussein told Australian Broadcasting's Four Corners programme today that the plane was deemed commercial and not hostile. "If you're not going to shoot it down, what's the point of sending it (a fighter) up?" Mr Hishammuddin asked.

He said had the Boeing 777 been shot down with 239 passengers and crew on board, "I'd be in a worse position, probably".