New data reveals Malaysian plane was airborne for 4 hours after vanishing;US officials fear MH370 was hijacked

US investigators think that Malaysian Airlines flight 370 remained airborne for four more hours after vanishing from its last recorded position - raising the startling prospect the plane could have been hijacked.

Officials suspect that the plane flew for a total of five hours based on data automatically downloaded from the Boeing 777's Rolls Royce engines and sent back to the ground as part of a routine monitoring program.

US counter-terrorism teams are now pursuing the astonishing possibility that the plane and its 239 passengers were diverted to an undisclosed location 'with the intention of using it later for another purpose'.

The Wall Street Journal broke the new developments after talking with two people familiar with the American investigation - raising a whole new raft of questions about what happened to the jet which disappeared seemingly without trace from radar at around 1.30 am early on Saturday morning en-route to Beijing.

Government terrorism experts are now examining the possibility that the pilot or somebody else turned the plane's transponders off to avoid detection and flew it to another country.

A total flight time of five hours upon leaving Kuala Lumpur means that the Boeing 777 would have been able to remain airborne for an additional 2,200 nautical miles at its air-speed - which put the border of Pakistan and the Arabian Sea within its reach.

While the Wall Street Journal said it isn't clear whether investigators have evidence of terrorism or hijacking - they have not ruled it out.

However, officials are working on the suspicion that the plane's engines were operating for four more hours following its last recorded sighting on radar.

This has caused enormous uncertainty over the final destination of the aircraft - in addition to why it flew for so long without operating its transponders.

One working theory from counter-terror officials is that the plane was taken over for an as-yet unknown purpose.

The Wall Street Journal said that this scenario - previously only discussed in the media as one of a number of conspiracy theories - was brought to national security officials and senior personnel from the appropriate US agencies.

At one of these briefings, officials were told that terror investigators were actively examining if flight 370 had been commandeered 'to be used later for another purpose'.

Of course, the mystery of the whereabouts of the aircraft continues - and it remains unclear if the plane crashed hundreds of miles from its last known location or indeed landed at an alternate destination.

Boeing officials, Malaysian Airline officials and Rolls Royce representatives have all not commented yet on the new revelations regarding the planes engines.

Erin Atan, Rolls-Royce head of Asia-Pacific and Middle East communications, was unable to confirm or deny the Wall Street Journal's claim when contacted by TIME magazine.

As part of maintenance agreements between Rolls Royce and Malaysian Airlines, the engines transmit live data to its global engine health monitoring center in Derby, UK for analysis every 30 minutes.

Investigators have used this information to try to establish the activities of flight 370 after its transponders ceased to work en-route to Beijing, half way across the Gulf of Thailand.

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