"Flight MH370 changed direction and was hijacked"

Reuters on March 14 quoted a source close to the investigators as saying that data recorded from military radar showed that the missing Malaysia Airlines plane may have been heading towards the Andaman Islands, adding that the hypothesis that the plane was hijacked was increasingly being strengthened.

Accordingly, flight MH370 may have crossed the Malay peninsula towards the Andaman Islands after losing contact with the flight control center in the early morning of March 8.

The last image of the plane with flight number MH370 in the sky before it disappeared (Source: Reuters)

A second source said an unidentified aircraft that investigators believe is Flight MH370 has been following a route between two waypoints since it last appeared on radar off Malaysia's northwest coast.

A waypoint is a geographic location established by calculating latitude and longitude, which can help pilots navigate along an air corridor.

This has led to the theory that the plane may have been piloted by someone with aviation training.

The plane was likely headed toward India's Andaman Islands, a chain of islands between the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal, the source said.

A third source quoted by Reuters said that investigators are increasingly convinced that someone influenced the plane carrying 239 people to deviate from its original flight path from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

"What we can say right now is that there was sabotage, possibly a hijacker, still on board," the source said.

All three sources requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media and because the information is sensitive during the investigation.

Reuters contacted officials at Malaysia's Transport Ministry but received no response.

Malaysia's Transport Ministry did not respond to Reuters' questions (Source: Reuters)

Malaysian police have previously said they are investigating the backgrounds of all passengers or crew members, including their mental health, leading to speculation that the plane may have been hijacked or sabotaged.

The information that Reuters cited from three people with connections to the investigation agency above is the first clear evidence in the mysterious disappearance of the modern Boeing 777-200 aircraft, which disappeared from civilian radar screens nearly a week ago.

With this new evidence, international search teams have shifted their search to the Andaman Sea and the Indian Ocean, sources said.

Previously, the multinational search force had not found any clues, such as plane debris, in the initial search area of ​​the East Sea and the Gulf of Thailand.

The last time the plane appeared on civilian radar was before 1:30 a.m. on March 8 (Malaysia time, one hour ahead of Vietnam time), less than an hour after leaving Kuala Lumpur.

Accordingly, the plane initially followed the route east of the Malaysian coast.

But on March 12, the Malaysian air force commander said a plane was recorded heading towards the northwest coast of Malaysia, at 2:15 a.m., about 320km northeast of Penang Island.

Reuters sources also said that the disappearance of MH370 from civilian radar screens and loss of contact with the flight control center could be due to someone turning off the plane's communication system.

The flight path the unidentified plane took, at points N571 and P628 on the flight map, is a commercial flight path from Southeast Asia to the Middle East or Europe.

According to the source, military radar determined the last position of MH370 was at an altitude of 144km on the east coast of Malaysia, heading towards Vietnam, near the reference point called "Igari" at 1:21 a.m. on March 8.

According to military radar, the plane may have changed course to the West, to a reference point called "Vampi" located in the Northeast of Indonesia's Aceh province, flight path N571 to the Middle East.

From there, the plane could have headed to "Gival" in southern Thailand's Phuket Island, before heading to "Igrex" on route P628 to the Andaman Islands, which commercial planes often take to reach Europe.

That time was 2:15 a.m. on March 8, coinciding with the time the Malaysian air force commander said in a press conference on March 12 but did not disclose further information.

Malaysia has asked Indonesia, Thailand and India to provide radar data (Source: AP)

Sources said Malaysia has asked Thailand, Indonesia and India, which has a naval base in the Andaman Islands, to provide radar data to track the missing plane./.

According to VNA