erratic changes in altitude and was flying what officials describe as a strange path. at one point, it appears to have climbed to 45,000 feet, well above its approved altitude, then descending to 23,000. now, a new analysis of satellite information shows the plane kept flying more than seven hours after takeoff, much longer than previously thought. a satellite searching for operational data from the plane detected the aircraft every hour in a so-called handshake. but no data was transmitted. its last contact, 8:11 a.m., somewhere along this arc that stretches as far north as kazakhstan and as far south as the indian ocean, west of australia. as you can see, search crews have a general area but still haven't pin-pointed its exact location. after more than eight hours in the air, it would have been close to running out of fuel.