Doomed airliner pilot was political fanatic: Hours before flying MH370 he attended trial of jailed Malaysian opposition leader.....Satellite data shows hijacked MH370 was last seen flying towards Pakistan OR Indian Ocean as investigators search pilots' luxury homes and reveal one had home-made flight simulator

The search operation has now been focused on two 'corridors', one which extends from  north west from Thailand to the Kazakstan-Turkmenistan border and the other which opens out into the southern Indian Ocean.

WHAT DOES NEW RADAR SIGNAL FROM SEVEN HOURS INTO FLIGHT MEAN?

The 'corridors' stretching north and south through the countries surrounding Malaysia are based on a satellite reading from seven and a half hours after the flight took off.

When the signal was received at 8.11am on March 8, the plane could have been anywhere along the red lines pictured above.

When the satellite in question received the signal, beamed into space, all it could tell would be how to adjust its systems to get a stronger read, an official told the Washington Post.

Combined with previous data, and the maximum flight distance of the plane, investigators have been able to plot a rough area from which they think the signal would have come.

The data cannot show where exactly the plane was, or which direction it was travelling in.

Countries in the plane's potential flightpath have now joined a huge diplomatic effort to locate the missing passengers, but China described the revelation as 'painfully belated'. 

While Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak refused to confirm that flight MH370 was taken over, he admitted 'deliberate action' on board the plane resulted in it changing course and losing connection with ground crews.

The plane's communication system was switched off as it headed west over the Malaysian seaboard and could have flown for another seven hours on its fuel reserves.

It is not yet clear where the plane could have been  taken, however Mr Razak said the most recent satellite data suggests the plane could have headed to one of two possible flight corridors.

Countries in the plane's potential flightpath have now joined a huge diplomatic effort to locate the missing passengers, but China described the revelation as 'painfully belated'. 

While Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak refused to confirm that flight MH370 was taken over, he admitted 'deliberate action' on board the plane resulted in it changing course and losing connection with ground crews.

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