An international air and sea task force hunting for the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 was re-directed on Friday to an area 1,100 kilometers (685 miles) north of where they have been searching for more than a week, after Australian authorities received new radar information from Malaysia.
The dramatic shift in the search area, moving it farther than the distance between London and Berlin, followed analysis of radar data that showed the missing plane had traveled faster, and so would have run out of fuel quicker, than previously thought.
The new search area is larger but closer to the Australian west coast city of Perth, allowing aircraft to spend longer on site by shortening travel times. It is also vastly more favorable in terms of the weather, as it is out of the sea region known as the Roaring 40s for its huge seas and frequent storm-force winds.