(CNN) -- It's been nearly three weeks since Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 vanished. Malaysian authorities say the plane went down in the southern Indian Ocean. Search efforts are concentrated in an area far off Australia's west coast.
What's the latest?
There's been a huge shift in where searchers are looking for Flight 370, and planes sent to the new zone have found lots of objects. But what those objects are isn't known yet.
Wait, I thought everyone was confident the old search zone was the right place to look. What happened?
More math, apparently.
Analysts looking at the satellite data and fuel consumption patterns decided earlier estimates for where the plane may have gone into the ocean were too far south. They now say the data shows the plane probably went down in an area about 680 miles (1,100 kilometers) northeast of the previous search zone.
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Legal steps started for first suit But what about all those floating objects spotted by satellites?Forget about them, the Australians say.
'In regards to the old areas, we have not seen any debris,' said John Young, general manager of emergency response for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority. 'And I would not wish to classify any of the satellite imagery as debris, nor would I want to classify any of the few visual sightings that we made as debris. That's just not justifiable from what we have seen.'
Malaysia's acting transport minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, seemed to dispute Young's account, suggesting that the new search area 'could still be consistent' with the idea that materials spotted in recent satellite photos over the previous search area are connected to the plane. The materials could have drifted in ocean currents, he said.
However, oceanographer Charitha Pattiaratchi told CNN there's no way the objects spotted in the old search area could be from a plane crash in the new search zone.
'There is absolutely no connection, in terms of the debris between the two locations which are 1000 km apart,' he said in an e-mail.
Where is the new search area?
It's 680 miles (1,100 kilometers) to the northeast of where search operations had been focused. That puts it 1,150 miles (1,850 kilometers) off the west coast of Australia. That's about 400 miles (644 kilometers) closer to land than the previous area.
So what does this mean for efforts to find the plane?
Australian officials say the new search area is closer to land and in a gentler region of ocean, making for longer, safer and more consistent searches.
But it's still a huge area at 123,000 square miles (319,000 square kilometers) and will take some time to search.
'We're kind of starting from square one with a whole new search and a whole new set of premises,' CNN aviation analyst Jeff Wise said Friday.
Learn about technology being used in the searchHow many countries are involved in search efforts?
The sole representative of families of passengers aboard missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 leaves a conference at a Beijing hotel on Friday, March 28, after other relatives left en masse to protest the Malaysian government's response to their questions. Authorities are combing thousands of square miles of the southern Indian Ocean in search of the wreckage of Flight 370, which disappeared March 8. Malaysian authorities declared that the plane had most likely been lost with all aboard in the remote sea far off Australia.Photos: The search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 
122 new objects spotted in ocean 
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Malaysia Airlines, Boeing facing lawsuitMalaysia is coordinating the search, which involves crews from six countries. Australia is leading the effort, based out of Perth, with China, New Zealand, the United States, South Korea and Japan contributing aircraft. China has also sent ships to help the search effort.
How are the families of those onboard?
Family members are anguished as they wait for answers. One-third of the plane's passengers were Chinese, and Malaysian authorities' announcement Monday that families should give up hope that their loved ones were alive angered many Chinese.
Experts and relatives ask: Where's the proof that the plane went down?Did flammable cargo doom Flight 370?Flight 370's resting place is best clue
'My heart can't handle it. I don't want to hurt my children,' Cheng Li Ping told CNN as she waited in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for evidence about what happened to her husband.
CNN's Ashley Fantz, Jethro Mullen and Michael Pearson contributed to this report.
Posted by Unknown on Friday, March 28, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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