It was the best news they had hoped for after waiting for an entire week for news of their loved ones on board the missing Malaysia Airlines flight since last Saturday.

Even though PM Najib Tun Razak did not say that the plane was hijacked, "by confirming that someone has deliberately switched off communication and diverted the plane, was enough to bring us hope", Mr Chng Khai Sheng, 30, told The Straits Times.

Mr Chng's sister Chng Meiling was among 239 passengers and crew onboard the Beijing-bound Flight MH370. Her final destination was to the United States where she works as a senior process engineer, said Mr Chng.

Since last Saturday, families of the Malaysian passengers and crew onboard Flight MH370 have been put up at Everly Hotel in Putrajaya, hoping to get the latest updates from Malaysia Airlines on their loves ones.

A number of families have since left the hotel and returned to their hometowns after days of search did not show any clue of the missing plane. Mr Chng is the only one in his family of seven who is still waiting at Everly Hotel Putrajaya for news of his sister.

Mr Selamat Umar, 60, whose son Mohd Khairul Amri Selamat, 29, an aviation engineer was on board the fateful flight, told The Straits Times.
"There's hope. Best news ever. Now that plane is found. I believe everyone is safe. I am confident can find the plane because the whole world is helping,"

Mr Najib said search for the plane would be expanded into two corridors - a northern corridor stretching approximately from the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to northern Thailand and a southern corridor stretching approximately from Indonesia to the southern Indian ocean.