THE SEARCH EXTENDS WESTWARD

An oil slick on the sea. A purported wrong turn to the west seen on military radar. Questionable satellite photos. Passengers boarding with stolen passports. After six days, what seemed like potential clues to the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 have all led nowhere. On Thursday, Malaysian authorities expanded their search westward toward India, saying the aircraft with 239 people aboard may have fl own for several hours after its last contact shortly after takeoff early Saturday from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing. Also Thursday: A U. S. offi cial said the plane was sending signals to a satellite for four hours after the aircraft went missing, an indication that it was still fl ying. The jet had enough fuel to reach deep into the Indian Ocean. That led searchers to believe the plane could have fl own more than 1,600 kilometres beyond its last confi rmed sighting on radar . Malaysia asked for radar data from India and other neighbouring countries to see if they can trace it fl ying northwest. India says its navy, air force and coast guard will search for the plane in the south Andaman Sea. The U. S. navy’s 7th Fleet said it is moving one of its ships, the USS Kidd, into the Strait of Malacca, west of Malaysia. The international search is methodically sweeping the ocean on both sides of Malaysia. in addition to the South China Sea, where the aircraft was seen on civilian radar fl ying northeast before vanishing . Oil slicks seen Saturday were found to have nothing to do with the jetliner and a yellow object spotted by a search plane turned out to just be trash.