Australia widens MH370 search area as hunt ramps up

photo taken on March 21, 2014, shows a crew member on a Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orion aircraft participating in the Australian Maritime Safety Authority-led search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in the Southern Indian Ocean. Spotter planes spent a second fruitless day scouring a remote stretch of the Indian Ocean for wreckage from a Malaysian jet. -AFP

PERTH, Australia: Australian rescue officials broadened the search area for missing Malaysian flight MH370 Saturday and boosted the number of spotter planes looking for it in the Indian Ocean, with weather conditions favourable.

On Friday five planes criss-crossed 23,000-square kilometres (8,800-square miles) without any sightings of wreckage, and the search area has now been widened.