Missing Malaysian Plane - plane may have been deliberately diverted

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101493600 wrote:Malaysian authorities said the search for missing Malaysia Airlines plane MH370 had been extended on Friday, amid news reports that the plane could have been deliberately flown off-course towards the Andaman Islands.

Reports continue to trickle in about the whereabouts of the plane - which has been missing for almost a week. Reuters reported Friday that military radar-tracing evidence suggested the missing jetliner was flown by someone who had received aviation training across the Malaysian peninsula toward India's Andaman Islands.

Two unnamed sources told Reuters that the military radar plotted an unidentified aircraft heading through established aviation corridors used by commercial planes flying from Southeast Asia to the Middle East or Europe. The data suggest the plane may have been deliberately flown west taking it over the Andaman Islands, the sources said.

Meanwhile, the Malaysian transport minister held a press conference Friday, in which he said the search area had been widened and was "pushing further" into the South China Sea and Indian Ocean.

"This is not a normal investigation..(and) forces us to look further and further afield," Seri Hishammuddin told reporters.

The minister also denied another media report - this time from The Wall Street Journal - that the jet had left a trail of data for several hours after it vanished.

"(This) report is not true," he said, adding that both Boeing and Rolls Royce agreed with this conclusion.

On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported that communication satellites received intermittent data "pings" from the Boeing 777 aircraft, giving the plane's location, speed and altitude for at least five hours after it disappeared from civilian radar screens, citing people who were briefed on the investigation.

The final satellite ping was sent from over water, at what one of these people called a "normal" cruising altitude, the Journal reported, adding that the people declined to say where specifically the transmission originated and that it was unclear why the transmissions stopped.

The automatic pings, or attempts to link up with satellites operated by Inmarsat PLC, occurred a number of times after the flight's last verified position, the people said, indicating that during that time, the jet carrying 239 people remained intact.