Search area widened far from last location

Authorities are expanding the search for the missing plane to the Malacca Strait, far from its last confirmed location, the airline said yesterday, injecting new mystery into an investigation that so far has failed to come up with any answers.

More than three days after the Boeing 777 disappeared on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, no trace of the plane has been found in waters between Malaysia and Vietnam that have been scoured by more than 40 planes and ships.

The plane dropped off radar less than an hour into the flight without sending out a distress signal. Authorities have said it may have attempted to turn back to Kuala Lumpur, but they expressed surprise it would do so without informing ground control.

Malaysia Airlines said in a statement that search and rescue teams expanded their scope to the Malacca Strait between Malaysia's western coast and Indonesia's Sumatra island - the opposite side of Malaysia from the plane's last known location.

To reach the strait, a busy shipping lane, the plane would have had to cross over the country, presumably within the range of radar.

An earlier statement said the western coast of Malaysia was "now the focus," but the airline subsequently said that phrase was an oversight. It didn't elaborate.

Civil aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said the search remained "on both sides" of the country.

Malaysia's Berita Harian newspaper quoted air force chief Rodzali Daud as saying the plane was last detected by military radar near the island of Pulau Perak at the northern end of the Strait of Malacca, flying about 1,000 meters lower than its previous altitude.

There was no word on what happened after that.

Police earlier said they were investigating whether any passengers or crew on the plane had personal or psychological problems that might explain its disappearance, along with the possibility of a hijack, sabotage or mechanical failure.

In the absence of any wreckage or flight data, police have been left trawling through passenger and crew lists for potential leads.

"Maybe somebody on the flight has bought a huge sum of insurance, who wants family to gain from it or somebody who has owed somebody so much money, you know, we are looking at all possibilities," Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu Bakar told reporters.

Navy ships, military aircraft, helicopters, coast guard and civilian vessels from 10 nations have criss-crossed the seas off both coasts of Malaysia without success.

China has deployed 10 satellites using high-resolution imaging capabilities, visible light imaging and other technologies to assist in the search.

Meanwhile, Malaysia Airlines is investigating an Australian television report that the co-pilot on the missing plane had invited two women into the cockpit during a flight two years ago.

Jonti Roos said she and her friend were allowed to stay in the cockpit during the one-hour flight from Phuket to Kuala Lumpur. She said the arrangement did not seem unusual to the plane's crew.

"Throughout the entire flight, they were talking to us and they were actually smoking throughout the flight," Roos said.