Confusion surrounds path of missing jet

Malaysian officials are unsure about the direction in which a missing jetliner was flying before it disappeared from air traffic control radars last week, CNN reports.

Malaysian officials initially believed the plane was last spotted over the Gulf of Thailand, which it was passing over en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The Malaysian air force told CNN Tuesday that it believed the plane had turned off its air traffic control responders and turned back toward Kuala Lumpur, though Malaysian officials later pushed back on the definitiveness of the theory.

{mosads}Malaysia Airlines said on Tuesday that it was expanding their search for the missing airplane to the body of water to the west of Kuala Lumpur.

“The search and rescue teams (SAR) have expanded the scope beyond the flight path to the West Peninsular of Malaysia at the Straits of Malacca,” the company said in a statement. “The authorities are looking at a possibility of an attempt made by MH370 to turn back to Subang. All angles are being looked at. We are not ruling out any possibilities.”

A flight tracking website, FlightRadar24.com, showed the airplane more than 100 miles off course about an hour after it was last detected by air traffic control radars, according to a report by the British BBC network. 

The Malaysia Air flight was a Boeing 777 that was carrying 239 passengers and crew members. The plane was last seen on Friday night about an hour into its flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.