Looking in Indian Ocean for missing jetliner

Josh Voorhees has a Slate article about 'pings' from the missing jet:

ABC News reports that "US officials have an 'indication' the missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner may have crashed in the Indian Ocean and is moving the USS Kidd to the area to begin searching. It's not clear what the indication was, but senior administration officials told ABC News the missing Malaysian flight continued to 'ping' a satellite on an hourly basis after it lost contact with radar. The Boeing 777 jetliners are equipped with what is called the Airplane Health Management system, which pings a satellite every hour. The number of pings would indicate how long the plane stayed aloft. It's not clear, however, whether the satellite pings also indicate the plane's location. The new information has greatly expanded the search area and it will take another 24 hours to move the USS Kidd into position, a senior Pentagon official told ABC News.
The Washington Post reports that "administration officials later said the new information was that the plane’s engines remained running for approximately four hours after it disappeared from radar early Saturday over the Gulf of Thailand. The officials said they did not know what direction the plane flew— or whether it simply circled— during that time, or whether it was airborne at all. But four hours of additional flight could have put the plane somewhere over the Indian Ocean, prompting US officials to consider expanding the search into that area.
Jay Carney at today's White House briefing said that "It's my understanding that, based on some new information that's not necessarily conclusive, but new information, an additional search area may be opened in the Indian Ocean, and we are consulting with international partners about the appropriate assets to deploy."
Earlier, Malaysian officials dismissed a Wall Street Journal report suggesting the plane could have flown an additional two thousand nautical miles, possibly putting the plane in the Indian Ocean or any number of other locations.

Rico says that someone will be proved right, in the end, but they'll still all be dead...