RALEIGH -- A U.S. official says investigators are examining the possibility that someone caused the disappearance of a Malaysia Airlines jet with 239 people on board, and that it may have been "an act of piracy."

Malaysia's prime minister says that the Malaysia Airlines airplane that went missing a week ago was deliberately diverted. The jet then continued to stay airborne for at least 7 more hours. Searches are still under way to locate the missing Boeing 777 and officials are now investigating the captain and flight crew that was aboard that plane.

In the meantime one house lawmaker wants to make sure that planes carry flight recorders that eject before crashes so they are easier to find. That lawmaker is North Carolina US Representative David Price.

"We have the technology to have those recorders eject immediately and float to the surface and that's exactly the kind of technology we need to apply to commercial airliners."

Price proposed legislation back in 2007 that would have required ejectable recorders on commercial airliners as a backup to the standard recorders.