KUALA LUMPUR, March 14 — New developments on MH370 this morning has pointed a second time to the possibility that missing flight MH370 had remained airborne for several hours after it disappeared from civilian radar at 1.30am on March 8.

According to a Reuters report, satellites had picked up faint electronic pulses from the Malaysia Airlines (MAS) aircraft after its disappearance, which it said suggested that the plane's maintenance troubleshooting system were “switched on and ready to communicate” with satellites at the time.

Citing sources, the report said the system “pings” about once every hour and in the case of MH370, around five or six such pulses were heard. This could mean that MH370, which was Beijing-bound and ferrying 239 people, had continued to fly on for a number of hours after it left the radar screens.

This latest data conflicts, however, with claims just yesterday evening from Malaysian authorities who had disputed reports in the Wall Street Journal that had pointed to the same possibility.

WSJ’s report had pointed to data allegedly transmitted from the Boeing 777’s Rolls Royce engines, which was described as “inaccurate” by acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein and confirmed by both the engine manufacturer Rolls Royce and Boeing Co.

The international business newspaper has since corrected its report, however, admitting it had wrongly cited US investigators as basing their suspicions on signals from the plane’s Rolls Royce engines.

According to the paper, suspicions that MH370 stayed airborne for several hours had been based on an analysis of signals sent through the plane’s satellite communication (SATCOM) link.

WSJ cited people familiar with the matter as explaining that the SATCOM is designed to automatically transmit the status of onboard systems.

Lending more credence to the WSJ and Reuters reports is fresh information from US officials this morning that there is an “indication” pointing to the possibility that the Malaysia Airlines flight had gone down in the Indian Ocean, which is hundreds of miles off-course the aircraft’s original flight plan.

Boeing 777 Malaysian Airlines with the registration number 9M-MRO flies over Poland February 5, 2014. — Reuters pic

“We have an indication the plane went down in the Indian Ocean,” a senior Pentagon official told ABC News.

The official added there were indications that the plane flew four or five hours after disappearing from radar and that they believe it went into the water.

The plane was last spotted on radar at 1.30am on Saturday morning, abou 120 nautical miles off the coast of Kota Baru which lies on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia, near the South China Sea.

The Indian Ocean is far to the west of Malaysia.

For MH370 to reach that location, it would have had to fly several hours past 1.30am when it went missing. The aircraft, according to MAS, was carrying enough fuel to fly up to 8.30am that morning.

Rescue and intelligence officials are still verifying the credibility of the latest data received while search vessels head towards the Indian Ocean to continue their hunt for the aircraft there.

The Pentagon official reportedly  said that the USS Kidd was being moved at the request of Malaysia and is heading towards an area where the Indian Ocean and the Andaman Sea meet. It has helicopters aboard that can scour the area.

It should take more than 24 hours for the vessel to reach that location.

Vessels from India are also understood to be heading to the area to search for MH370.

As such, the new data has remained somewhat inconclusive for now, as have many other theories and information that have emerged on the mysterious disappearance of MH370 over the past seven days.

MH370 left the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) at 12.41am on Saturday morning. The Boeing B777-200 aircraft was carrying 239 people, including 12 flight crew members and two infants.