India joins search

India is sending ships and planes to search an area east of a group of islands in the Andaman Sea close to Myanmar and Malaysia. A senior navy official says:

India has formally joined the search operations this afternoon for the missing Malaysian airliner by sending three ships. [The search operation] is being conducted from the naval headquarters in New Delhi. Being a maritime search and rescue operation, the government … has asked the Indian navy to lead and conduct the operations.”

Evidence indicates the plane left its flight path and flew west over Malaysia over the Andaman Sea in the general direction of India.