Search for missing Malaysia airplane may expand to Indian Ocean: White House

The White House on Thursday said that search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 might be expanding to the Indian Ocean based on new but inconclusive information about the aircraft.

The United States and the international community are following all possible leads to locate the missing aircraft, the White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters at a press briefing.

"And it is my understanding that one possible piece of information or collection -- pieces of information has led to the possibility that a new area -- a search area may be opened in the India Ocean," he said, adding that "but I don't have any more details on that."

The potential new search area comes as investigators continue to search for the plane with 239 people aboard, most of them Chinese, which has lost contact since Saturday.

The U.S. air safety officials are in Kuala Lumpur working closely with the Malaysian government on the investigation, Carney said.

"There are a number of possible scenarios that are being investigated as to what happens to the flight, and we are not in a position at this time to make conclusions about what happened, unfortunately," he said.