INVESTIGATORS NOW BELIEVE THE MISSING BOEING 777 FLEW FOR 8 HOURS!
 (Via New York Post )  Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said Saturday that authorities now know the  transponder on the jet was intentionally disabled, and the plane turned back  from its flight to Beijing and flew across Malaysia. Najib said authorities are  now trying to trace the plane across two possible ‘corridors’ — a northern  corridor from the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan through to northern  Thailand, and a southern corridor from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean.
Malaysia’s leader said Saturday the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight  370 was the result of “deliberate action.”
Earlier, a Malaysian official said it was “conclusive” the plane was  hijacked. But Prime Minister Najib Razak said investigators are still looking at  all possibilities.
Najib said authorities now know the missing Malaysia airliner’s transponder  was intentionally disabled, and it turned back from its flight to Beijing and  flew across Malaysia.

Najib also said investigators are now trying to trace the airplane across  two possible “corridors” — a northern corridor from the border of Kazakhstan and  Turkmenistan through to northern Thailand, and a southern corridor from  Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean.
[…]   India was using heat-seeking technology to search hundreds of islands in the  Andaman Sea.  The Andaman Sea islands stretch south of Myanmar, covering an area 720 kilometers (447 miles) long and 52 kilometers (32 miles) wide.   Only 37 of 572 are inhabited, with the rest covered in dense forests.     The island chain has four airstrips, but only the main airport in Port Blair can handle a large commercial jet.
More than 80 planes and ships from a dozen countries have scoured 35,000  square miles for wreckage. A team of five American experts is taking part in the  probe, and the Kidd, an American guided-missile destroyer, has been sent to the  Indian Ocean to aid in the search.
The search was expanded into the Indian Ocean after U.S. officials said the  plane had sent signals to satellites for hours after its last contact with  civilian air traffic control. The Boeing 777 is built with the technology to  receive flight data from a satellite connection. The plane would automatically  send pings, or signals, to the satellite.
Speculation that terrorists took control of the plane was briefly considered  after it first vanished when it was discovered that two Iranian men boarded the  plane with stolen passports. But authorities determined the two men were  migrants seeking illegal passage to Europe.   (read more)