'Deliberate act' took missing plane off course, says Malaysia PM Najib Razak
Malaysian PM stops short of blaming hijacking, as search refocused on two specific flight corridors
The mystery of missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 has taken a dramatic new twist, with the country's prime minister, Najib Razak, confirming the disappearance of the Boeing 777 jet was the result of a "deliberate act".
Investigators now believe that someone on board the plane deliberately shut off its communications and tracking systems, turned the plane around and flew for nearly seven hours after it vanished, Najib said yesterday.
As the unprecedented search for the plane and its 239 passengers and crew enters its second week, Najib said the hunt for wreckage around the scheduled flight path to the east of Malaysia was being called off.
While he stopped short of calling it a hijacking, Najib said: "The Malaysian authorities have refocused their investigation into the crew and passengers on board."
Of the 227 passengers, 154 are from China.
Reports from Malaysia said the homes of those on the flight deck of the missing plane - including Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53 - were raided shortly after the prime minister spoke at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur.