Missing Malaysia Airlines Jetliner
Two objects spotted by satellite in the southern Indian Ocean over the weekend may be debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, Australian authorities said Thursday.
The objects were picked up by commercial satellite on Sunday. Search planes were dispatched on Thursday but found nothing. Ships are there or on the way, and aircraft from Australia, New Zealand and the United States resumed the search Friday, officials said.
Authorities cautioned the
objects could be something else -- shipping containers that fell off a
vessel, for instance. But they said they represent the best lead so far
in the search for the missing airliner, which vanished 13 days ago with
239 passengers and crew aboard on March 8 while en route from the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Read below for the latest, and check out our full story.
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MORE: US 7th Fleet spokesperson: Radar hits described to @wrightups considered "very typical" and not linked to Australian announcement.by ABC News via twitter 3/20/2014 8:45:07 AM -
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Here's what we know:
- Two objects spotted in the southern Indian Ocean may be debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
- The objects are of "reasonable size," with the largest about 24 meters (79 feet) across
- They appear to be in an area 2,500 kilometers (1,500 miles) southwest of Australia's west coast
- The Boeing 777 vanished over Southeast Asia on March 8
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24m & 5m long objects in Indian Ocean that MIGHT be linked to #MH370 . This is what they look like via satellite http://pbs.twimg.com/media/BjJy0ivCUAAPBtc.jpg #CNN
by Saima Mohsin via twitter 3/20/2014 9:25:17 AM -
Malaysia Airlines will be holding a briefing with the families of passengers from flight MH 370 at 8 p.m. local (8 a.m. ET) at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur, family members told CNN's Atika Shubert. This will be a more formal briefing. So far the families have only been notified of the developments coming out of Australia.
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Sightings credible, but yet to be confirmed, Malaysian official says.by cnnbrk via twitter 3/20/2014 9:38:42 AM
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If this is the debris from #MH370 , what's next? The race will be on to get to it. Locate, eyeball, recover, analyze. cnn.com/2014/03/20/wor…by saeed.ahmed via twitter 3/20/2014 9:54:30 AM -
The crew of a Royal Australian Air Force P3 Orion was unable to locate the two objects that satellites spotted in the southern Indian Ocean. A tweet from the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said cloud and rain resulted in limited visibility. More aircraft searches will continue.
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Australian plane unable to locate two objects that satellites saw in Indian Ocean. Australian officials say weather limited visibility.by cnnbrk via twitter 3/20/2014 10:00:24 AM
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"We are in the most isolated part of the world," said Australian Defense Minister David Johnston, stressing the difficulty of the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane. "In fact it doesn't get, if I can be so bold, more isolated." He was speaking to Sky News in Jakarta.
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A merchant ship, the Höegh St. Petersburg, has reached the search area, a spokesman for Norweigian shipping company Höegh Autoliners told CNN.
This comes after officials said a merchant ship, and Australian naval ship and three planes were headed to the area. Earlier Thursday, a Royal Australian Air Force search plane was unable to find the objects seen in the satellite image. -
Malaysian news channel Astro Awani has this from Malaysia's interim Transportation Secretary Hishammuddin Hussein:Australian satellite images 'slightly different' from previous leads, says Hishammuddin - ow.ly/uMz5QMar. 20, 2014
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From Malaysian news channel Astro Awani:MH370: Family members hoping 'objects' in Indian Ocean is not of MH370 - ow.ly/uMEwFMar. 20, 2014
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Passenger's partner: I hope debris isn't from plane
Sarah Bajc, the partner of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 passenger and American Philip Wood, told CNN on Thursday that she hopes the debris spotted in the southern Indian Ocean is not from the plane.
“I keep hoping that somebody took this flight for a reason, which means they would have preserved it and … took it someplace,” she told CNN's Chris Cuomo from Beijing.She said news about the debris was enough to make her and other relatives of passengers "anxious again."
Asked about whether officials have given her enough information over the past 13 days, Bajc called Malaysia Airlines “one of the best airlines in Southeast Asia,” while adding that it’s “a relatively small company” that is “completely overwhelmed” by all the attention surrounding Flight 370.
"The lack of information from the airline is understandable,” Bajc told CNN. “It is frustrating because it’s always very after-the-fact, and then it’s really watered down.” -
China's navy "adjusted the search and rescue plan" for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 on Thursday afternoon and dispatched some of its ships to the southern Indian Ocean, Navy spokesman Liang Yang said, according to a post on the Chinese navy website.China's navy on the way
The two Chinese naval fleets about 2,300 nautical miles and 3,100 nautical miles, respectively, from the search area, Liang said. -
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority has called of the search for Thursday and will resume Friday, the agency said.Australia's search done for the day
It's 9:16 p.m. in Perth, the western Australia city from which search planes took off earlier today.
Four search planes -- two Royal Australia Air Force AP-3C Orions, a U.S. Navy P8 Poseidon, and a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3K2 Orion -- were used, covering an area of 23,000 square kilometers, the authority said.AMSA search operations for #MH370 have been completed for today, the search will continue in the morning. More here bit.ly/1eVisPeMar. 20, 2014- Reply
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CNN's Andrew Stevens reported from Perth that the search is quite an undertaking for the planes' crews -- it takes about four hours to fly to the search area from Perth, and a four-hour flight back. -
More reaction from passenger's partner
We noted an hour ago that Sarah Bajc, the partner of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 passenger and American Philip Wood, told CNN that she hopes the debris spotted in the southern Indian Ocean is not from the plane. Here's the whole interview: -
Ex-TSA leader: It's possible
Former Transportation Security Administration leader and Secret Service director John Magaw told CNN he believes “there’s a very good possibility” that the debris is from the plane, in part because he thinks the biggest piece – about 79 feet long – would be too big to debris from other options being mentioned, such as something that fell off a cargo ship.“It’s very, very large" and therefore “pretty hard to fall over,” he said.
Magaw was asked whether such a large piece of a plane would have remained intact after a crash into the ocean.
"If it hit the water at an angle, from my understanding … it’s like hitting concrete, but it still would penetrate way down. … A piece of something like a wing … could very well either stay on the surface or come back up very quickly."
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Malaysian PM meets with Air France 447 investigator
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak met with Jean Paul Troadec, who led the investigation into 2009's crash of Air France Flight 447, the prime minister's office tweeted Thursday. The Air France airliner crashed in the Atlantic Ocean and wasn't found until days later.I appreciate the input of Jean Paul Troadec, who was involved in the Air France 447 investigations. #MH370 pic.twitter.com/puVrdFLJxb
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China still looking north
When Malaysia's acting transportation minister was discussing the radar images in the southern hemisphere today, he said a number of countries still were searching in the north. China and India are affirming that.
Earlier Thursday, the Indian government said its navy deployed four warships in the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea for the search.
Even though China is sending vessels to the southern Indian Ocean, it also is looking at the "northern corridor" -- a northern route where officials say the plane could have flown, stretching to northern Thailand, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.
It's widely believed that the plane is less likely to have taken the northern route. Still, China is "stepping up efforts to verify and analyze satellite and radar data concerning the vast Chinese territory covered by the northern corridor," China's Foreign Ministry said on its website Thursday, quoting spokesman Hong Lei at a press briefing in Beijing.
And, two formations of Chinese vessels have sailed to the Bay of Bengal "and the waters to the west of Indonesia," due to arrive Friday, Hong said. -
Australia puts data buoys into search zone
At least one of the C-130 search planes that Australia's air force sent into the search zone today dropped data buoys into the water. The buoys will help searchers get a better idea of how the currents are moving, which might help them determine where the debris has moved in the four days since it was first seen, CNN's Andrew Stevens reported from Perth. And if the debris ends up being that of the plane, the data also might help searchers trace backward from the debris to where the rest of the plane would be.
