Map: Malaysia Flight MH370 route, search area

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 went missing early on March 8, about 40 minutes after taking off from Kuala Lumpur's main airport. It was en route to Beijing.

Flight controllers lost contact with the plane over the Gulf of Thailand, east of the Malaysian town of Kota Bharu.

Current search area

At first, the search effort focused on the area near wherelast contact was made with the plane. In the days that followed, the area expanded to a radius of almost 200 kilometres.

Landover the Malay Peninsula was added to the search, as well as the Strait of Malacca to Malaysia's west.

A satellite reading then placed the plane's last location on two incredibly vast stretches: a northern corridor stretching over land to Kazakhstan and a southern sea corridor in the Indian Ocean.

Further data analysis narrowed this location down to a general area about 2,500 km southwest of Australia. Several satellites and planes have spotted potential debris in the southern Indian Ocean, although nothing has been confirmed as related to Flight MH370.

Original flight route

Sources: CBC News stories, Reuters, AP