Opinion | Is Malaysia fit to lead widened search for missing flight MH370?
Now that the operation is moving into a new, much wider stage, Beijing should demand better co-operation to find missing plane
Nearly eight days after the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on Saturday made the first definitive comments on how the Boeing 777-200 carrying 239 passengers and crew had vanished.
Someone, he said, had taken "deliberate action" to disable the communications systems and change the course of the jet which could have continued flying for a further seven hours.
While Najib stopped short of calling the incident a hijacking, he admitted the plane could be anywhere in the Indian Ocean, or as far away as Kazakhstan, thousands of kilometres from the South China Sea where its transponder sent its last signal.
His remarks marked the investigation had moved into a new phase which would focus on the crew and passengers.
Najib's statement confirmed much of what had been leaked to the media in the preceding few days - that military radar and satellites had picked up signals of what may have been the missing aircraft, which seemed to be flying on a westerly course, far from its intended flight path to Beijing.
It has also confirmed widespread suspicions that Malaysia's civilian and military leaders had been aware of this information much earlier but failed to disclose it promptly and publicly.