Military radar data suggests a Malaysia Airlines jetliner missing for nearly a week was deliberately flown hundreds of miles off course, heightening suspicions of foul play among investigators, according to the Associated Press.
Analysis of the Malaysia data suggests the plane, with 239 people on board, diverted from its intended northeast route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and flew west instead, using airline flight corridors normally employed for routes to the Middle East and Europe, the AP reported.
Two sources said an unidentified aircraft that investigators believe was Flight MH370 was following a route between navigational waypoints when it was last plotted on military radar off the country's northwest coast, according to the AP.
This indicates that it was either being flown by the pilots or someone with knowledge of those waypoints, the sources said, the AP reported. Waypoints are geographic locations, worked out by calculating longitude and latitude, that help pilots navigate along established air corridors.
The last plot on the military radar's tracking suggested the plane was flying toward India's Andaman Islands, a chain of islands between the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal, according to the AP.
A third source familiar with the investigation said inquiries were focusing increasingly on the theory that someone who knew how to fly a plane deliberately diverted the flight, the AP reported.
"What we can say is we are looking at sabotage, with hijack still on the cards," said a senior Malaysian police official, according to the AP. Sources declined to be identified because they were not authorized to speak to the media and due to the sensitivity of the investigation.
According to the source, a multinational search efforts were being stepped up in the Andaman Sea and also the Indian Ocean, the AP reported.
