'Objects' spotted in plane hunt
France says it has picked up satellite images of objects in a remote patch of the southern Indian Ocean as the search resumed today for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet.
The images show “potential objects in the vicinity of the southern corridor,” Malaysia’s Ministry of Transport said in a statement. That is thought to be close to areas of the Indian Ocean where previous satellite images released by Australia and China showed objects that could be debris from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which went missing over the Gulf of Thailand on March 8 with 239 people on board.
A Malaysian official involved in the search mission said the French image was captured on Friday and was about 575 miles north from where the Chinese and Australian objects were seen.
One of the objects 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. However, the official said the French satellite image was fuzzy and very unclear, making it difficult to determine the exact dimensions.
Air and sea searches since Thursday in a remote area of the southern Indian Ocean to determine whether the Chinese and Australian objects were from the missing jet have been unsuccessful.
Australian officials told Malaysia there had been no new sightings so far today, Malaysia’s statement said.
The latest images were sent to Australia, which is coordinating the search about 1,550 miles south west of Perth, the statement said.
The images could be another clue in the growing mystery over Flight 370. The search has moved from seas off Vietnam when the plane first went missing to areas not far from the Antarctica, where planes and a ship were scrambling today looking for a pallet and other debris spotted by a search plane to determine whether they were from the missing jet.
Wooden pallets are commonly used in shipping, but can also be used in cargo containers carried on planes.
Mike Barton, chief of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority’s (AMSA) rescue coordination centre, said that the wooden pallet, which was spotted yesterday, was surrounded by several other objects, including what appeared to be strapping belts of different colors.
A New Zealand P3 Orion military plane was then sent to find it but failed, he said.
“So, we’ve gone back to that area again today to try and re-find it,” Mr Barton said. An Australian navy ship was also involved in the search.
AMSA said the aircraft that spotted the pallet was unable to take photos of it.
“We went to some of the expert airlines and the use of wooden pallets is quite common in the industry,” Mr Barton said. “They’re usually packed into another container, which is loaded in the belly of the aircraft. ... It’s a possible lead, but we will need to be very certain that this is a pallet because pallets are used in the shipping industry as well.”
Eight search planes departed from a military base near the southwestern Australian city of Perth today, but like other searches since Thursday, they have not produced any results.
John Young, manager of AMSA’s emergency response division, said the latest search used mostly human eyes.
“Today is really a visual search again, and visual searches take some time. They can be difficult,” he said.
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: a northern corridor stretching from Malaysia to Central Asia, or 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 anyone else on board.
