Malaysia Airlines crashed in Bay of Bengal/Indian Ocean?

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysia Airlines plane, missing for a week, may have crashed either in the Bay of Bengal or in the Indian Ocean, a TV news channel reported today, hours after Malaysian Prime Minister confirmed that flight data showed the jet deviated due to "deliberate action".

"The news channel has learned that a classified analysis of electronic and satellite data suggests the flight likely crashed either in the Bay of Bengal or elsewhere in the Indian Ocean," the leading American channel reported while noting that the Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said some of those areas have been searched.

Ahead of Najib's announcement, US officials told the channel that flight MH370 made drastic changes in altitude and direction after disappearing from civilian radar.

The changes raised questions on who was at the controls of the Boeing 777-200 ER jetliner when it vanished along with 239 people, including five Indians, who were flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8.

The more the United States learns about the flight's pattern, "the more difficult to write off" the idea that some type of human intervention was involved, an official familiar with the investigation was quoted as saying by the news channel.

"Malaysian authorities have refocused their investigation on crew and passengers aboard," Najib told reporters today, a week after the plane vanished mysteriously from radar screens

"Evidence is consistent with someone acting deliberately from inside the plane," Najib said, stopping short of calling it a hijacking, saying investigators have not made a final determination.

Taken together, the data point toward speculation of a dark scenario in which someone took control of the plane for some unknown purpose, perhaps terrorism, the news channel quoted American investigators as saying.

The jetliner was flying "a strange path," a US official said on condition of anonymity.

Malaysian military radar showed the plane climbing to 45,000 feet soon after disappearing from civilian radar screens and then dropping to 23,000 feet before climbing again, the official said.