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.
Mr Razak stopped short of saying it was a hijacking, saying only that they were investigating “all possibilities”.
He said the plane could be anywhere from Kazakhstan to the Indian Ocean.
The developments have added further uncertainty to the relatives of the 239 people on board the Kuala Lumpur to Beijing flight.
Some in the Chinese capital said the news had made them more hopeful that their loved ones are alive, but one woman said they were on an emotional rollercoaster and she felt “helpless and frustrated”.
‘New phase’
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 had 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 aircraft 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”:
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