Malaysia Airlines (MAS) has shared all available information about the missing flight MH370 with the authorities since the moment it learned that the aircraft had disappeared in the early hours of last Saturday, the airline said in a media statement on Saturday.

"This includes the very first indications that MH370 may have remained airborne for several hours after contact was lost, which the Prime Minister referred to today," MAS said.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak revealed in a press conference on Saturday afternoon that the communications and tracking systems of missing flight had been deliberately switched off and the plane was turned around and flown for nearly seven hours after it vanished.

Shortly after the Mr Najib finished speaking, police arrived at the home of the missing aircraft's pilot to search for evidence.

As the unprecedented search for Kuala Lumpur-Beijing Flight MH370 and its 239 passengers and crew entered its second week, Mr Najib said that search operations in South China Sea were being called off.

He also said new data showed the last communication between the missing plane and satellites took place at 8:11am Malaysian time.

An analysis of the plane's last communication with satellites placed it in one of two corridors, he said. One was a northern corridor stretching from northern Thailand to the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.

And the other a southern corridor stretching from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean.