Malaysian Plane Was Hijacked

A Malaysian government official says investigators have concluded the missing Malaysia Airlines plane was hijacked.

The unnamed official told the Associated Press that one or more people with significant flying experience hijacked the jet, switched off communication devices and steered it off-course.

He said only a skilled aviator could navigate the plane the way it was flown after its last confirmed location over the South China Sea.

He added no motive has been established and it is not yet clear where the plane was taken, but he said hijacking was "conclusive".

Below are the updates from news conference,

Earlier, a source close to the investigation said satellite pulses picked up from flight MH370 show it may have been flying off-course for several hours before running out of fuel over the Indian Ocean.

Analysis of military radar tracking and pulses has provided two different theories as to what may have happened to the plane, the unnamed source said.

The electronic signals are believed to have been transmitted for up to five hours after ground control lost contact with the aircraft, according to Sky sources.

The signals are 'pings' sent by the plane to confirm it is still there and to allow the network to determine its position.

Niall Paterson a correspondent with Sky said: "If this information is accurate, for those five hours at the very least, that flight was not crashed, it was in some sense flying through the air."

The source close to the investigation said the most likely possibility is that after travelling northwest, the Boeing 777 made a sharp turn to the south, over the Indian Ocean where officials think, based on the data, it flew until it ran out of fuel and crashed into the sea.

The other interpretation is that flight MH370 continued to fly to the northwest and headed over Indian territory.

But the source said it was believed unlikely that the plane flew for any length of time over India because that country has strong air defence and radar coverage which should have allowed authorities to see the plane.