Search for missing Malaysian plane shifts south

Source: By KRISTEN GELINEAU

SYDNEY (AP) — Investigators looking into the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines plane are confident it was on autopilot when it crashed in a remote stretch of the Indian Ocean, Australian officials said Thursday as they announced the latest shift in the search for the jet.

After analyzing data exchanged between the plane and a satellite, officials believe Flight 370 was on autopilot the entire time it was flying across a vast expanse of the southern Indian Ocean, based on the straight path it took, Australian Transport Safety Bureau chief commissioner Martin Dolan said.

"Certainly for its path across the Indian Ocean, we are confident that the aircraft was operating on autopilot until it ran out of fuel," Dolan told reporters in Canberra, the nation's capital.

Asked whether the autopilot would have to be manually switched on, or whether it could have been activated automatically under a default setting, Dolan replied, "The basic assumption would be that if the autopilot is operational it's because it's been switched on."

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In this map provided on Thursday, June 26, 2014, by the Joint Agency Coordination Centre, details are presented in the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in the southern Indian Ocean. Australian officials say the hunt for the missing plane that vanished during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8 with 239 passengers and crew aboard will shift farther south of the most recent suspected crash site in a remote stretch of Indian Ocean. (AP Photo/Joint Agency Coordination Centre) EDITORIAL USE ONLY