MH370 'remained in controlled flight after contact lost'

[CANBERRA] Investigators have concluded that Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which veered off course and disappeared on March 8, was probably not seriously damaged in the air and remained in controlled flight for hours after contact with it was lost, until it ran out of fuel over the southern Indian Ocean.

Their conclusion, reached in the past few weeks, helped prompt the decision to move the search area hundreds of miles to the south-west.

The main evidence for the conclusion lies in a re-examination of Malaysian military radar data and in a more detailed analysis of electronic "handshakes", or pings, that the aircraft exchanged with an Inmarsat satellite over the Equator, senior officials involved in the investigation said. The altitude readings from the radar now appear to have been inaccurate, officials said.