The large SAR operation to the West of Malaysia would not be happening unless corroborated by other intel, ie the SATCOMM tracking and other.
You may well be right but this from a newspaper report tonight (unconfirmed of course
)
A total of 57 ships, 48 aircraft and 13 nations are taking part in the search and rescue mission, which has been expanded further east into the South China Sea and further out into the Indian Ocean.
Looks like those better informed than us still aren't 100% confident that the aircraft definitely went west.