Two senior Malaysian authorities are now saying the missing jetliner radically changed from its intended route and was flying at a low altitude when it disappeared from radar screens early Saturday. The revelation explains why searchers were dispatched to the Strait of Malacca, a bordering body of water that the plane doesn't usually fly over on a Beijing-bound route.
According to the South China Morning Post, radar data from the doomed Boeing 777 was last detected over the busy shipping channel at 2:40 am Saturday — nearly 350 miles off track. "It changed course after Kota Bharu and took a lower altitude. It made it into the Strait of Malacca," a military official said.
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