Malaysia widens search for missing plane

Malaysia's Minister of Transport Hishamuddin Hussein pauses before responding to queries from the media about the missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner MH370 on Thursday, March 13, 2014, in Sepang, Malaysia.
Malaysia's Minister of Transport Hishamuddin Hussein pauses before responding to queries from the media about the missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner MH370 on Thursday, March 13, 2014, in Sepang, Malaysia.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysian authorities expanded their search for the missing jetliner westward toward India on Thursday, saying it may have flown for several hours after its last contact with the ground.

That scenario would make finding the Boeing 777 a vastly more difficult task, and raises the possibility that searchers have been looking in the wrong place for the plane and its 239 passengers and crew since it disappeared early Saturday en route to Beijing.

In the latest in a series of false leads in the hunt, search planes were sent Thursday to search an area off the southern tip of Vietnam where Chinese satellite images published on a Chinese government website reportedly showed three suspected floating objects.

Read tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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