As the search continues for the missing aircraft, authorities are now looking into the possibility that MH370 attempted to turn back towards Subang airport.

In a statement, MAS said the search-and-rescue teams have expanded the scope beyond the flight path.

"The focus now is on the west (coast of the) peninsula of Malaysia, at the Straits of Malacca.

"All angles are being looked at. We are not ruling out any possibility," reads the statement.

 

The search and rescue mission is aided by Australia, China, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines and the United States.

The assets deployed to cover the search and rescue are extensive, with nine aircraft and 24 vessels deployed.

Apart from the search in the sea, search on land, in between the the Straits of Malacca and the South China Sea, is also conducted.

 

The statement revealed that in Beijing, the prime minister’s special envoy to China, Ong Ka Ting, is there to assist and coordinate all operational matters with Malaysia Airlines.

 

MH370 was enroute to Beijing from KLIA, with 239 people on board.

'Little hope for good news'

Meanwhile, Reuters quoted the head of Vietnam's search and rescue effort, Pham Quy Tieu, as saying, "Until now, with all of our efforts, there is very little hope for any good news about this plane."

The search was widened today to a larger swathe of the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea, around where the plane lost radio contact and vanished from radar screens.

Interpol said on Sunday at least two passengers on board had used stolen passports, raising suspicions of foul play.

Southeast Asia is known as a hub for false documents, which are also used by smugglers, illegal migrants and asylum seekers.

Police in Thailand, where the passports were stolen and the tickets used by the two men carrying them were booked, said on Tuesday they did not think they were linked to the disappearance of the plane.

"We haven't ruled it out, but the weight of evidence we're getting swings against the idea that these men are or were involved in terrorism," the chief of police in the Thai resort city of Pattaya, Supachai Puikaewcome, told Reuters .

Neither Malaysia's Special Branch, the agency leading the investigation, nor spy agencies in the United States and Europe, have ruled out the possibility of a hijack or bombing.

However, Malaysian authorities have indicated the evidence so far does not strongly back an attack as a cause for the aircraft's disappearance, and that mechanical or pilot problems could have led to a possible crash, US government sources said.