Missing Malaysia Airlines flight
systems disabled, PM says
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 Kuala Lumpur-Beijing flight last made contact
with air traffic control over the South China Sea to
the east of Malaysia, about one hour after take-off.
Mr Razak told a news conference that new satellite
evidence shows "with a high degree of certainty"
that the aircraft's communications systems were
disabled and then it changed course, flying back
over Malaysia towards India.
Satellite signals continued to be picked up from
the plane some seven hours after it lost radar
contact.
Mr Razak said the authorities were now trying to
trace the plane across two possible corridors
from the border of Kazakhstan and
Turkmenistan through to northern Thailand
south from Indonesia to the southern Indian
Ocean.
The investigation, he said, had "entered a new
phase", and the search of the South China Sea had
been discontinued.
Addressing reports that the plane had been
hijacked, he said only "we are still investigating all
possibilities as to what caused MH