Chinese crew spot object in search for jet

A Chinese plane crew spotted a white, square-shaped object in an area identified by satellite imagery as containing possible debris from the missing Malaysian airliner.

Chinese crew spot object in search for jet

A Chinese plane crew spotted a white, square-shaped object in an area identified by satellite imagery as containing possible debris from the missing Malaysian airliner.

The development came as the United States prepared to move a specialised device that can locate black boxes into the region.

The crew aboard an IL-76 plane sighted the object in the southern Indian Ocean search area today.

It reported the coordinates to the Australian command centre, which is leading the multinational search, as well as the Chinese icebreaker Snow Dragon, which is on its way to the area, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Satellite images from Australia and China had earlier identified possible debris in the area that may be linked to the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 on March 8 with 239 people aboard.

The US Pacific command said it was sending a black box locator in case a debris field is located.

The Towed Pinger Locator, which is pulled behind a vessel at slow speeds, has highly sensitive listening capability so that if the wreck site is located, it can hear the black box pinger down to a depth of about 20,000 feet.

Commander Chris Budde, a US Seventh Fleet operations officer, said: “This movement is simply a prudent effort to preposition equipment and trained personnel closer to the search area so that if debris is found we will be able to respond as quickly as possible since the battery life of the black box’s pinger is limited.”

There was no sign the move was because of any break in the mystery of the plane, but rather as a preparation.

The Chinese plane was one of two Ilyushins that joined the search today from Perth, increasing the number of aircraft to 10 from eight a day earlier.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority’s rescue co-ordination centre said the weather in the area, about 2,500 1,550 miles from Perth, was expected to deteriorate with rain likely.

Australian transport minister Warren Truss said “nothing of note” was found yesterday, which he described as a “fruitless day”.

“It’s going to be a challenge, but we’ll stick at it,” he told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio before the first aircraft left Perth at dawn.

“We’re just, I guess, clutching at whatever little piece of information comes along to try and find a place where we might be able to concentrate the efforts.”

A cyclone bearing down on the Australian north-west coast “could stir up less favourable weather,” he said.

Flight 370 vanished while en route from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing, setting off a multinational search that has turned up no confirmed pieces and nothing conclusive on what happened to the jet.

The latest French satellite data came to light yesterday as Australian authorities co-ordinating the search sent planes and a ship to try to locate a wooden pallet that appeared to be surrounded by straps of different lengths and colours.

The French data came after Australian and Chinese satellites earlier identified suspect objects.

The pallet was spotted on Saturday from a search plane, but the spotters were unable to take photos of it.

In Paris, French foreign ministry spokesman Romain Nadal said that the satellite radar echoes “identified some debris that could be from the Malaysian Airlines plane”.

A Malaysian official involved in the search said the French data located objects about 575 miles north of the spots where the objects in the images released by Australia and China were located.

One of the objects located was estimated to be about the same size as an object captured on Tuesday by the Chinese satellite that appeared to be 72 feet by 43 feet, said the official.

The southern Indian Ocean is thought to be a potential area to find the jet because Malaysian authorities have said pings sent by the Boeing 777-200 for several hours after it disappeared indicated that the plane ended up in one of two huge arcs.

One is a northern corridor stretching from Malaysia to Central Asia, and the other a southern corridor that stretches toward Antarctica.

Malaysian authorities have not ruled out any possible explanation for what happened to the jet, but have said the evidence so far suggests it was deliberately turned back across Malaysia to the Strait of Malacca, with its communications systems disabled. They are unsure what happened next.

Authorities are considering the possibilities of hijacking, sabotage, terrorism or issues related to the mental health of the pilots or someone else on board.

In the U.S., Tony Blinken, President Barack Obama’s deputy national security adviser, said on CNN: “There is no prevailing theory.”

“Publicly or privately, we don’t know,” he said. “We’re chasing down every theory.”

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