Originally Posted by
Pontius Navigator
I have covered this twice and others too although The Malaysians have not.
The flight in Malaysian airspace after the turn back was about one hour. After a decision to scramble and the interceptor getting airborne it would have been in a tail chase. The interceptors are not long range and could not have remained there for long anyway.
Malaysian Air Force has a bunch of Su-30's with top speed of Mach 1.9 and range of 1600 NM. They could have been scrambled at the last possible moment (with MH370 going out of range of their radars), and they still would catch up and be able to follow it for at least half an hour before returning to base. Though they are not technically interceptors, the distinction in this case is completely academical.