Australia narrows search for missing Malaysia jet

(Vatican Radio) Australia's maritime safety agency said on Tuesday it had sharply reduced its search for the missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner to a 600,000 sq km corridor in the southern Indian Ocean, an area roughly the size of Spain and Portugal combined.
Australia's Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said strong currents and high seas are making the search for Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 more daunting.
In the northern hemisphere, a separate search area is along an arc stretching from Malaysia through northern Thailand, Myanmar and China to Kazakhstan.
Meanwhile, Malaysia said it had conferred with the U.S. and Chinese ministers on the search for the flight, in a 26-nation operation that now spans Asia from the Caspian Sea to the southern Indian Ocean.
Malaysia's Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein expressed thanks to the countries helping in the search. “It remains a significant diplomatic, technical, and logistical challenge,” he said. “Malaysia is encouraged by the progress made in such a short period of time, and we are grateful by the responses by the heads of governments that we have spoken to, all of whom have expressed a commitment of assistance.”
Intensive background checks of everyone aboard the missing Malaysian jetliner have so far failed to find anyone with a known political or criminal motive to crash or hijack the plane, according to Western security sources and Chinese authorities. Investigators are convinced that someone with deep knowledge of the Boeing 777-200ER and commercial navigation diverted the jet, carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew, perhaps thousands of miles off course.
Listen to Ann Schneible’s report: