The pilot of the missing Malaysia Airlines plane which disappeared in March with 239 people on board had plotted a flight path to a remote island far into the southern Indian Ocean where the search is now focused, investigators have discovered.

The Daily Telegraph said the route was plotted on a home flight simulator machine used for practice by aircraft captain Zaharie Shah and was deleted before MH370 disappeared on March 8.

The simulator was confiscated for investigation after the aircraft disappeared. The discovery of the plot has intensified suspicion that he deliberately hijacked his own plane and diverted it from its approved flight path to Beijing.

The Telegraph points out that detectives and investigators, including experts from Britain's Air Incident Branch, have so far found no evidence of a technical fault or malfunction which could explain the aircraft's disappearance.

Inquiries into the backgrounds of the flight's passengers and crew have similarly failed to yield any evidence of, or motive for, anyone hijacking the plane or sabotaging it.