Missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370: Chinese satellite spots debris

PUBLISHED: 23 MAR 2014 05:10:43 | UPDATED: 23 MAR 2014 

Chinese satellites have spotted objects floating in the southern search area for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 aircraft that could be debris and ships have been sent to investigate, Malaysia said on Saturday. Photo: Reuters

JOANNA HEATH

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has confirmed that civilian aircraft have sighted further suspected debris in Australia’s search area, “increasing hope” in the search for the missing Malaysian Airlines plane.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority released a statement at midnight on Saturday night saying a civilian aircraft assisting with the search spotted a number of small objects with the naked eye, including a wooden pallet.

“I got information late last night about these particular sightings,” Mr Abbott said as he was leaving Papua New Guinea on Sunday morning.

Mr Abbott said he understood a “number of small objects fairly close together” had been spotted.

“It’s still too early to be definite but obviously we have now had a number of very credible leads and there is increasing hope, no more than hope, that we might be on the road to discovering what did happen to this ill-fated aircraft.”

Four extra aircraft would be joining the scene on Sunday, including two from China and two from Japan.

A Royal New Zealand Air Force aircraft was diverted to the location on Saturday but only reported seeing clumps of seaweed, according to the AMSA statement. A buoy marker was dropped in an attempt to track the material.

China said on Saturday that one of its satellites has spotted a large object floating in the same south Indian Ocean area that has become a focal point in the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane.

A Chinese defence agency said on its website that satellite pictures taken around noon on Tuesday showed an object measuring 22.6 metres by 13.1 metres and located about 120 kilometres southwest of where Australia two days earlier captured images of two indistinct objects, one of them estimated at 24 metres long.

Since Australia reported its satellite sightings on Thursday, an increasingly intensifying effort has been undertaken to comb the waters about 2400 kilometres off the coast of Perth.

Crew member Garrick Anderson prepares to throw a GPS tracking buoy into the Southern Indian Ocean to mark the position of a solid object in the water aboard a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3K2 Orion aircraft.

Photo: Reuters

The report of the Chinese image came amid concerns that any objects seen by satellite days ago may already have sunk, but it is still likely to give further impetus to the multinational search in the so-called southern corridor that is thought to be a likely path taken by Flight 370, though it had flown from Kuala Lumpur en route to Beijing.

Malaysia's defence minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, said that China would be dispatching ships to the area of the object sightings.

36,000 SQUARE KILOMETRE SEARCH ZONE

China already has five ships in the southern corridor and is sending an additional two there, Hishammuddin said in a statement during a daily press briefing, which was cut short by the Chinese satellite news. He also said two Chinese aircraft capable of hauling heavy items were to arrive Saturday in Perth to join Australia, the United States and New Zealand in the search operations.

Two merchant ships and an Australian navy vessel also are in the search area, which encompasses some 36,000 square kilometres.

A girl reads some of the messages of hope and support for the passengers of MH370 at a mall outside Kuala Lumpur.

Photo: Reuters

Japanese planes will arrive Sunday, and two Indian aircraft that landed in Malaysia on Friday night also will assist with the search in the southern area, Hishammuddin said. In addition, a British vessel equipped with underwater search sensors is en route, he said.

Despite the growing and sophisticated resources, the operation has proved daunting, not only because of the large search area but also the generally strong currents and rough seas in this remote section of the Indian Ocean. Hishammuddin said there was a cyclone warning for the southern corridor.

On Saturday, weather conditions and visibility were good as four Orion military aircraft and two long-range commercial planes scoured the waters, with 10 volunteer air observers helping to look for any objects that could be related to the missing jetliner.

A Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orion flies past the HMAS Success as they search for debris or wreckage in the southern Indian Ocean.

Photo: AFP

Australia's maritime agency said observers in one of the civilian planes spotted a number of small objects, including a pallet, within a radius of about three miles, but an inspection later by a New Zealand Orion found only seaweed.

Despite the lack of success thus far, Malaysian officials have pledged to keep search and rescue operations going as long as there was hope.

"I know this roller-coaster has been incredibly hard for everyone, especially for the families," Hishammuddin said Saturday in the news briefing. Flight 370 took off with 239 passengers and crew on board. "We hope and pray this difficult search will be resolved, and bring to closure to those whose relatives were on board," he said.