Missing Malaysian plane - Prime Minister has ruled that the plane was hijacked

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-26591056 wrote:The communications systems of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 were deliberately disabled, Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak has said.

According to satellite and radar evidence, he said, the plane then changed course and could have continued flying for a further seven hours.

He said the "movements are consistent with the deliberate action of someone on the plane".

The plane disappeared a week ago with 239 people on board.

The flight left Kuala Lumpur for Beijing at 00:40 local time (16:40 GMT) on 8 March and disappeared off air traffic controllers' screens at about 01:20.

Mr Razak told a news conference that new satellite evidence shows "with a high degree of certainty" that the one of the aircraft's communications systems - the Aircraft and Communications Addressing and Reporting System- was disabled just before it reached the east coast of Malaysia.

ACARS is a service that allows computers aboard the plane to "talk" to computers on the ground, relaying in-flight information about the health of its systems.

Shortly afterwards, near the border between Malaysian and Vietnamese air traffic control, the plane's transponder - which emits an identifying signal - was switched off, he said.

According to a military radar, the flight then turned and flew back over Malaysia before heading in a north-west direction.

A satellite was able to pick up a signal from the plane until 08:11 local time - more than seven hours after it lost radar contact - although it was unable to give a precise location, Mr Razak said.

He went on to say that based on this new data, investigators "have determined the plane's last communication with a satellite was in one of two possible corridors":

This has gone from being a difficult search to being a really enormous, almost impossible, search for the plane, the BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes says.

Mr Razak said that in light of the new evidence, the investigation had "entered a new phase" and would focus on the crew and passengers on board.

Addressing reports that the plane had been hijacked, he said only "we are still investigating all possibilities as to what caused MH370 to deviate".

Shortly after the news conference finished, police began searching the Kuala Lumpur home of the plane's pilot, 53-year-old Zaharie Ahmad Shah, Reuters quotes one police officer as saying.

'Fruitless search'

Malaysia's prime minister confirmed much of what had been leaked to the media, from US agencies and satellite companies, in the last 48 hours.

His government had been facing severe criticism for not being more open about what it knows, our correspondent says.

China - which had 153 citizens on board the flight - has urged Malaysia to continue providing it with "thorough and exact information" on the search, state news agency Xinhua said.

The foreign ministry said it was sending technical specialists to participate in the investigation, and appealed for the help of other countries and organisations.

The families of those on board the flight have endured an agonising wait for news.

Along with the Chinese passengers, there were 38 Malaysians and citizens of Iran, the US, Canada, Indonesia, Australia, India, France, New Zealand, Ukraine, Russia, Taiwan and the Netherlands on board.

An extensive search of the seas around Malaysia - involving 14 countries, 43 ships and 58 aircraft - since the plane disappeared had proved fruitless.