The last satellite transmission from a Malaysian airliner missing for a week has been traced to the Indian Ocean off Australia, far from where searches have taken place, a person familiar with the analysis says.

A path from Malaysia to the ocean off Australia would have taken as much as 5000 kilometres, about the maximum distance the Boeing 777-200 could have flown with its fuel load.

Flight 370 may have flown beyond its last known position about 1600 kilometres west of Perth, and that location may not be an indication of where the plane ended up, said the person, who spoke on condition of not being named because of the sensitivity of the information.

Peter Gibson, spokesman for Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority, said he was not aware of the new information putting Flight 370 near Perth and said that the Australian Maritime Safety Authority would have jurisdiction of the search if the plane did end up in the area.

Investigators have also found that someone in the cockpit programmed it to turn away from its intended path to Beijing after turning off a device identifying the jet to radar, according to another person in the US government familiar with the probe. That adds to the increasing evidence pointing to a deliberate diversion by an experienced pilot.