This map shows every airport where Malaysia Flight 370 could have landed

What happened to Malaysia Flight 370 is one of the great mysteries of modern aviation. Thanks to a number of missteps by Malaysian authorities, the first critical few days of the search for the vanished Boeing 777 were in the wrong part of the Indian Ocean. Given the last known satellite signal from the plane and the amount of fuel it had, it could have landed or crashed just about anywhere in a two-million-square-mile semicircle. New York radio station WNYC mapped out all the airports in that arc with runways of at least 5,000 feet.

James Fallows at The Atlantic, an aviation buff, doesn't think it landed at any of those airports, but he passes on this more interactive map from reader David Strip, of New Mexico. The 777 had a fighting chance at the landing strips marked in yellow, but would have probably aimed for any of the red, purple, or green runways. Click around the map or read Fallows' post for more information. --Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.