Update as of 7:00am EST...

Malaysian officials say there has been evidence that Flight MH370 deliberately flew off its course, indicating that high jacking was a possible scenario.

The new development, as announced by the Malaysian side, collaborated what US investigators earlier believed was a "deliberate" shutdown of the plane's two communications systems, one after another.

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US aviation experts said the plane's data reporting system was found to have shut down at 1:07 am, while its transponder shut down at 1:21 am, suggesting that it was a "deliberate act."

ABC's aviation consultant John Nance said the shutdown of the airlines' two communication systems was "systematic", fueling earlier reports of potential terrorism, sabotage, espionage, hijacking or pilot suicide.

Reports said the US investigation team "is convinced that there was manual intervention."

Meanwhile US officials have extended their search teams into the waters of the Indian Ocean as requested by Malaysia saying they have an "indication" that the airline may have crashed there.

Top Malaysian officials said the missing airlines continue to "ping" a satellite every hour after it lost contact with the radar.

Recent reports state that the airlines continued to fly 4-5 hours over the Indian Ocean after it lost contact from the radar.  This prompted Malaysian officials and the multinational search teams to widen the search from the South China Sea into the Indian Ocean.

Pentagon said they have an "indication" the missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner may have gone down into the bottom of the Indian Ocean.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said, "It's my understanding that based on some new information that's not necessarily conclusive, but new information, an additional search area may be opened in the Indian Ocean, and we are consulting with international partners about the appropriate assets to deploy."

It's not clear what the indication was, but senior administration officials said the missing Malaysian flight continued to "ping" a satellite on an hourly basis after it lost contact with radar.

According to ABC the Boeing 777 jetliners are equipped with what is called the Airplane Health Management system in which they ping a satellite every hour. The number of pings would indicate how long the plane stayed aloft.

China's search team has likewise moved to the Indian Ocean from the South China Sea to continue its search. Among China's search and rescue assets are 8 ships, 3 helicopters, 2 fixed wing planes and 10 satellites.

Pentagon officials said that the destroyer USS Kidd was being moved to the western part of the Strait of Malacca at the request of Malaysia and is heading towards an area where the Indian Ocean and the Andaman Sea meet. The ship has helicopters aboard that can scour the area.