So That Missing Plane is Still A Mystery

Officials were still totally bewildered as the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 continued this week, with searchers' hopes being dashed almost as soon as they were raised. On Monday, it was revealed that the spotted oil slicks did not come from the missing plane; and, although one of the two passengers who used a stolen passport has now been identified, it's brought the searchers no closer to figuring out what happened to the jetliner, or where it could possibly be now.

Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Baka announced late Sunday that his team had been able to name one of the two suspects who had used a stolen passport to get on the Malaysia flight, but wouldn't release any details. "I can confirm that he is not a Malaysian, but cannot divulge which country he is from yet," said the Inspector General.

Though information slowly keeps coming out, officials are still at a loss as to what could have taken down the Boeing 777 mid-way through its flight to Vietnam. A whole contingent of ships and planes sent out to locate a floating object sighted yesterday afternoon has, so far, not been able to find anything. More crushingly, though there was hope that a yellow object spotted floating in the sea Sunday was a life-raft from the airplane, on Monday it was revealed to be nothing more than a floating cable reel. Hopes were also dashed after oil from the oil slicks that were sighted two days ago was sent to a lab and technicians determined that the oil wasn't from the missing aircraft.

"The fact that we are unable to find any debris so far appears to indicate that the aircraft is likely to have disintegrated at around 35,000 feet," an inside source involved in the search told Reuters.

Adding another layer of mystery to the situation, there's now reason to believe that the plane may have tried to turn around mid-way through its flight. "We are trying to make sense of this," Malaysia's air force chief, Rodzali Daud, said at a news conference. "The military radar indicated that the aircraft may have made a turn back, and in some parts this was corroborated by civilian radar."