“Deliberate action” diverted the missing Malaysia Airlines plane after its communications were cut, according to Malaysia’s Prime Minister.
At a packed news conference, Najib Razak stopped short of saying flight MH370 had been hijacked, despite a government official earlier saying this was the case.
Mr Razak stressed “all possibilities” were being looked into try and resolve the mystery surrounding the flight’s fate. It left Kuala Lumpur last Saturday bound for Beijing with 239 people on board.
Shortly after he finished speaking, police began searching the house of the pilot, 53-year-old Zaharie Ahmad Shah, Reuters reported. The official said they had gone to collect evidence that could help with the investigation.
The final satellite communication with the Boeing 777 came more than six and a half hours after it disappeared from civilian radar at 1.30am on March 8, Mr Razak confirmed at the briefing.
In this period the aircraft changed direction and passed back over the Malaysian peninsula towards the Indian Ocean.
Data confirmed an unidentified aircraft that later appeared on military radar off Malaysia’s west coast before going out of range at 2.15am was MH370.
“Up until the point at which it left military primary radar coverage, these movements are consistent with deliberate action by someone on the plane,” Mr Razak said.
The search now encompasses two “corridors” – a northern corridor from the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan through to northern Thailand, and a southern corridor from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean.
The plane first lost contact with air traffic controllers in the South China Sea, and Mr Razak said the search there would be called off.
He said: “Clearly the search for MH370 has entered a new phase. We hope this new information brings us one step closer to finding the plane.”
Courtesy: Sky News
