Originally Posted by
hamster3null
Either way, the plane may have been in the air longer than 5 hours. In the first case, 5 hour mark is the last moment MH370 was in range of a VHF network. Time wise, this would be consistent with passing India on the westbound heading.
I found this VHF coverage map, not sure how current it is:
And the VHF coverage would be even less the further below 30,000 feet the aircraft was.