The flight was to China in the north. The search area was to the west. This is 1000 miles due east but, the Phillipines do have an extremist Muslim problem. Hmm?
http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?where1=Tawi+Tawi+island&FORM=LMIEMN#Y3A9MzcuNzI1NDk4fi03NS43NzYyOTkmbHZsPTQmc3R5PXImcT1UYXdpJTIwVGF3aSUyMGlzbGFuZCUyMFBoaWxsaXBpbmVz
Was interested in the current maps. If there is anyway a plane could float that far? Some fluke of nature