Malaysia’s military believes the missing Malaysia Airlines flight changed course and made it to the Malacca Strait, off the west coast of Malaysia, hundreds of kilometres from the jetliner’s last position recorded by civilian authorities.

In another puzzling discovery, the search for the missing Boeing 777-200ER is now approaching its fifth day with no sight of the missing plane or the 239 passengers and crew on board.

“It changed course after Kota Bharu and took a lower altitude. It made it into the Malacca Strait,” a military official, who has been briefed on investigations, said.

The airline said on Saturday that radio and radar contact with Flight MH370 was lost off the east coast Malaysian town of Kota Bharu but local Malaysian newspaper, Bertia Harian quoted Malaysian air force chief, General Rodzali Daud as saying radar at a military base had detected the airliner off course at 2:40am near Pulau Perak, the northern approach to the strait.

“After that, the signal from the plane was lost,” he was quoted as saying

A high-ranking military official involved in the investigation confirmed the report and also said the plane was believed to be flying low.

The Strait of Malacca separates the western coast of Malaysia and Indonesia’s Sumatra Island and is one of the world’s busiest shipping channels.

While there were no distress calls made from the missing plane, which was travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing early on Saturday morning, police are not ruling out the possibility of hijacking or fatal sabotage. Authorities are searching through crew and passenger lists looking for possible leads.

While initial reports speculated links between two passengers travelling on stolen passports who could have possible terrorism contacts, authorities believe the illegal travel documentation used may just be coincidental.

Kuala Lumpur airport CCTV imagery released by police of Iranian Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad, who was travelling on with a stolen Austrian passport, (L) and an unindentified man who was travelling on Flight MH370 with a stolen Italian passport (R). One of the men has been identified as Pouria Nour Mohammed Mahrdad, a 19-year-old Iranian seeking to illegally migrate to Germany. “We believe he is not likely to be a member of any terrorist group, and we believe he was trying to migrate to Germany,” Khalid said of the teenager. His mother was waiting for him in Frankfurt and had been in contact with authorities, he said. Officials have been in contact with Mr Pouria’s mother, who was waiting for him to arrive in Frankfurt on a one way ticket booked by a Thailand-based people smuggling ring through Beijing and Amsterdam. The second man is still yet to be identified but authorities have reason to believe he too is likely to be an Iranian wishing to illegally migrate to Europe with no links to terrorism.

Kuala Lumpur airport CCTV imagery released by police of Iranian Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad, who was travelling on with a stolen Austrian passport, (L) and an unindentified man who was travelling on Flight MH370 with a stolen Italian passport (R).

One of the men has been identified as Pouria Nour Mohammed Mahrdad, a 19-year-old Iranian seeking to illegally migrate to Germany.

“We believe he is not likely to be a member of any terrorist group, and we believe he was trying to migrate to Germany,” Khalid said of the teenager. His mother was waiting for him in Frankfurt and had been in contact with authorities, he said.

Officials have been in contact with Mr Pouria’s mother, who was waiting for him to arrive in Frankfurt on a one way ticket booked by a Thailand-based people smuggling ring through Beijing and Amsterdam.

The second man is still yet to be identified but authorities have reason to believe he too is likely to be an Iranian wishing to illegally migrate to Europe with no links to terrorism.

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Distressed relatives of passengers on board the missing MH370 Malaysia Airlines flight are claiming they have made calls to the mobile phones of their loved ones, which have dialled and rung before disconnecting.

As the world continues to wait news of what happened to the Boeing 777 flight, carrying 239 people, which seems to have vanished without a trace less than one hour after take-off from Kuala Lumpur, mystified officials and relatives are increasingly frustrated.

Rumours have circulated that friends and family members of those missing were able to call their lost loved ones’ mobile phones and could ‘connect’ before the call was abruptly ended.

The mystery surrounding Flight MH370 has created a fertile breeding ground for speculation and caused some on the ground to question whether authorities are concealing valuable information. According to newspaper reports a petition with over 100 relative signatures has been submitted to Chinese Authorities demanding answers.

Singapore’s Straits Times has reported Mr Hugh Dunleavy, Commercial Director at Malaysia Airlines, said the airline was also trying the mobile phones of the crew members, and that they also rang. But it could not do more, he said, and had given the numbers to the Chinese authorities.

A board displaying messages for the passengers from the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 is seen at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang on March 11, 2014.

A board displaying messages for the passengers from the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 is seen at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang on March 11, 2014.

The stories of phantom phone calls gives hope to the families who are holding onto the possibility that the plane has not crashed and the smartphone GPS systems could be used to locate the plane which may have landed somewhere.

However, other officials have dismissed the reports and warn that the rumours are just part of a heartless hoax to fuel conspiracy plots. MAS spokesman Ignatius Ong dismissed the reports, saying he had personally called one of the phones and failed to connect.

“I myself have called the number five times while the airline’s command centre also called the number. We got no answering tone,” said Ignatius.

Four days on, 10 countries have joined the search for the aircraft but there is still no sign of the plane or its passengers over the South China Sea, which has forced officials to widen the search area.

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