2014, not capable to find a plane...
You cannot find something until you start looking at the right place. In this case, we only have the last known position, but theoretically the plane might be anywhere within a 5000km radius. OK, you can cross some areas off where you can certainly tell it isn't, but still its a huge area. In this case search starts from last known position, then goes outwards in expanding circles.
We do have very sophisticated remote sensing technology, but for that to work it also needs to be zoomed in to a small 'area of interest'.