8892 miles is about 17 hours worth of flying.
Malaysia Airlines has said the plane was fueled for at least eight hours of flight. The Kuala Lumpur-Beijing route lasts six hours. Aircraft typically carry two hours’ worth of fuel on top of what is needed.
see post 124. Only had enough fuel left for 2200 nautical miles of flight when the transponders were turned off.
That's based on the assumption they were only fueled for the scheduled Beijing flight.
What if that assumption is wrong? Then that 2200 nautical mile circle (2532 of 8892 maximum statute miles) would need to be expanded to the point of irrelevance. They could pretty much be anywhere.