MH370: Pesawat 'Dilencongkan'

Hunt for missing plane pushes into Indian Ocean amid claims MH370 was ‘diverted’
Senior Malaysian minister refuses to confirm claims from a senior police official that flight MH370 was ‘deliberately diverted’ over the Andaman Sea but admits search teams are heading ‘further into the Indian ocean’

A Malaysian Air Force CN235 aircraft during a search and rescue (SAR) operation to find the missing plane

Tom Phillips in Sepang, Malaysia
11:27AM GMT 14 Mar 2014

The hunt for the missing flight MH370 took a dramatic turn on Friday when there were claims the plane had been “deliberately diverted” from its course and a senior Malaysia minister confirmed search teams were looking “further and further afield” for the missing Boeing.

Nearly one week after the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing vanished with 239 people aboard, officials admitted they had still found no trace of the plane.

At a packed press conference at Kuala Lumpur’s international airport in Sepang, the Malaysian defence and transport minister said 57 ships and 48 aircraft from 13 countries were now involved in the search.

Hishammuddin Hussein refused to confirm or deny a report from Reuters claiming that “radar-tracking evidence” indicated the plane may have been “deliberately” piloted back across Malaysia towards the Andaman Islands, a chain of isles between the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal.

"What we can say is we are looking at sabotage, with hijack still on the cards," a senior Malaysian police official told the news agency.

Two sources said an unidentified aircraft - believed to be MH370 - had been detected by military radars following a route between navigational way points to the country's northwest. 

This would indicate it was being flown by someone with aviation training, Reuters said. Hours earlier, on Thursday night, United States officials said they believed MH370 could have crashed in the Indian Ocean.

Malaysian defence and transport minister Hishammuddin Hussein 

Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters he would not comment on “media speculation” until it had been “properly verified and corroborated with the relevant authorities.” Malaysia’s leaders were “following all leads,” he insisted.

However, the minister confirmed search teams were now pushing westward into the region the story highlighted.

“We want nothing more than to find the plane as quickly as possible. But the circumstances have forced us to widen our search,” he said.

“Normal investigations become narrower with time, as new information focuses the search. But this is not a normal investigation. In this case, the information we have forces us to look further and further afield.”

On Thursday, The Telegraph accompanied an airforce mission into “Section E”, part of the Andaman Sea off Thailand’s coast.

Search teams will now move even further west towards the Bay of Bengal.

Hishammuddin Hussein also suggested investigators were placing an increasing focus on the life of Zaharie Ahmad Shah, the plane’s pilot, who reportedly kept a personal flight simulator at his home.

Asked if police had searched the pilot’s home, the minister said: “Not yet.”

“We may have certain important information that needs to be investigated,” he added, becoming visibly nervous with the line of questioning about the pilot and refusing to expand further on those comments.

Investigators were also examining whether the plane’s transponder had been turned off “intentionally or under duress,” he said.

Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, the CEO of Malaysia Airlines, said it was not unusual for a pilot to keep a simulator at home. “Everyone is actually free to do their own hobby.”

There has been growing criticism over Malaysia’s handling of the MH370 crisis, particular from China, which had 153 citizens onboard the missing Boeing 777.

On Friday, Hishammuddin Hussein refused to answer questions about exactly when search operations began off Malaysia’s west coast.

Malaysian airforce officials have told The Telegraph their search missions there have been going on since Saturday, days before any public admission from the government that the plane might have turned back across the peninsula.

Despite reports that the plane had flown west over the Andaman Sea, the minister said assets would continue to search the South China Sea to the east.

“What if the plane is still on the South China Sea? It [would be] totally irresponsible” to call off search there.