Search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 missing plane shifts to Indian Ocean

The hunt for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has shifted to the Indian Ocean, with investigators reportedly looking at the possibility that the plane was deliberately flown well west of its intended flight path.

Six days have now passed since the Boeing 777-200ER, with 239 people on board, disappeared from radar screens en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

"The aircraft is still missing, and the search area is expanding," Malaysian transport minister Hishammuddin Hussein said.

"Together with our international partners, we are pushing further east into the South China Sea and further into the Indian Ocean.

"We want nothing more than to find the plane as quickly as possible but the circumstances have forced us to widen our search."

This evening Vietnam said it was downgrading the search in the South China Sea, after the White House indicated that attention was now shifting west, to the Indian Ocean off the west coasts of Thailand and Malaysia.

Mr Hishammudin would not comment on US reports that suggest the plane may have been sending data to a satellite hours after it vanished from radars.

"Comments from unnamed US officials suggested the plane may have travelled for some time before losing contact," he said.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-14/missing-malaysia-airlines-plane-search-shifts-to-indian-ocean/5322454