U.K. Submarine Joins Search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
The U.K. Ministry of Defence said it had deployed the submarine, HMS Tireless, to assist with the multinational search for Flight 370, even though a lengthy hunt for floating plane debris in an area of sea the size of Arizona has yet to find anything.
“With her advanced underwater search capability, HMS Tireless will be able to contribute to the attempts to locate the missing plane,” the Ministry of Defence said in a statement.
MH370: What do we know? What will we ever know?
At the time — the evening of March 24 — it seemed like the breakthrough the world was waiting for. In a hastily called speech, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak announced that an unprecedented analysis of satellite signals concluded that Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 "ended" deep in the Indian Ocean, far from any possible refuge for the 239 souls aboard.
Finally, there was a solid explanation for what happened to the aircraft. A much more focused search could begin, and so perhaps could the grieving process for families from 14 countries. Najib's announcement quieted wild speculation about desert islands and terrorists and covert operations.
But four weeks after the plane disappeared, the apparent pivot in the search is proving to be not much of a pivot at all.
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Missing Malaysian Jet May Never Be Found, Head Of Search Warns
"The head of the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 has raised the possibility that no wreckage from the passenger jet may ever be found, revealing authorities have a very poor understanding about how fast or far it travelled," The Sydney Morning Herald writes.
Retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, the former head of Australia's defence forces who now leads the multinational effort to find the jet and any sign of the 239 people who were on board when it disappeared on March 8, reminded reporters Tuesday that "we don't know what altitude the aircraft was travelling at. We don't really know the speed it was going."
Analysis of radar images and some communications data have focused the search on an area of the southern Indian Ocean about 1,100 miles west of Perth, Australia. But that zone is about the size of the state of New Mexico and it's not certain that's where the jet ended up.
Timeline of Malaysian Air’s Missing Flight 370
The disappearance of Malaysian Airline System Bhd. (MAS)’s Flight 370 has galvanized a multinational search, spawned theories ranging from an accident to air piracy and repeatedly dashed hopes that a resolution was at hand.
Below is a timeline of the events that began with the jet’s departure from Kuala Lumpur en route to Beijing:
March 8:
12:41 a.m.: Flight 370 takes off from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew members on board.
12:41 a.m.: Flight 370 takes off from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew members on board.
1:07 a.m.: Last transmission from the Boeing Co. 777-200ER via an onboard text-and-data messaging system known by the acronym Acars.
1:19 a.m.: Last communication from the cockpit. Initially, officials said investigations showed the copilot said, “alright, good night” as the last words. They released a transcript on April 1 saying the last words were “Good Night Malaysian Three Seven Zero.” Plane leaves Malaysian airspace, heading across the Gulf of Thailand toward Vietnam.
1:21 a.m.: Radar transponder is switched off.
1:37 a.m.: Next Acars transmission is due, and never comes.
Australian PM Vows Search For Jetliner Will Go On
Recovery Ships Find Rubbish as Flight 370 Hunt Continues
Ships searching for Malaysian Air Flight 370 have recovered rubbish from the Indian Ocean that isn’t related to the missing plane as the hunt for the jetliner enters its fourth week. The objects recovered were “fishing equipment and flotsam,” and there is no evidence to suggest it was was from the aircraft, Andrea Hayward-Maher, a spokeswoman for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, said by phone today. It was the first time that material had been picked up.
Six ships are on the way to the revised search zone, bringing the total to 10 in the international effort, the Australian agency said in a morning update. The HMAS Toowoomba frigate left Perth last night and should arrive at the search area in about three days, while a ship with a black box detector and autonomous underwater vehicle will depart today, it said. Eight aircraft sighted multiple items yesterday in a search area that covered about 252,000 square kilometers (97,300 square miles), while 10 planes will be involved in today’s search.
White, red and orange “suspicious objects” had been seen as the Chinese ship Jinggangshan, carrying two helicopters, joined the Haixun 01 in the search area, the official Xinhua news agency said.
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Debris retrieved from Indian Ocean not from MH370
Authorities say that objects scooped out of the ocean off Western Australia are not part of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority has confirmed a Chinese ship retrieved objects from the southern Indian Ocean on Saturday.
However, it's believed the items are not related to the flight and are more likely fishing objects or rubbish, AMSA have said today.
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Debris retrieved from Indian Ocean not from MH370
Some objects scooped out of the ocean off Western Australia are not part of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, authorities have said.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority ( AMSA) has confirmed a Chinese ship retrieved objects from the southern Indian Ocean Saturday.
It's, however, believed that the items are not related to the flight and are more likely fishing objects or rubbish, TVNZ quoted AMSA as saying early Sunday.
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Ships retrieve objects in search for missing jet
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Chinese ship in search area looking for suspicious MH370 debris spotted by Chinese aircraft
Australia’s prime minister says the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is “an extraordinarily difficult exercise” but that it will go on as long as possible.
Tony Abbott said Monday that although no debris has been found in the southern Indian Ocean that can be linked to the plane missing for more than three weeks, the searchers are “well, well short” of any point where they would scale the hunt back.
Abbott says the best brains in the world are applying themselves to this task and adds: “If this mystery is solvable, we will solve it.”
Recovery Ships Find Rubbish as Flight 370 Hunt Continues
Ships searching for Malaysian Air Flight 370 have recovered rubbish from the Indian Ocean that isn’t related to the missing plane as the hunt for the jetliner enters its fourth week. The objects recovered were “fishing equipment and flotsam,” and there is no evidence to suggest it was was from the aircraft, Andrea Hayward-Maher, a spokeswoman for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, said by phone today. It was the first time that material had been picked up.
Six ships are on the way to the revised search zone, bringing the total to 10 in the international effort, the Australian agency said in a morning update. The HMAS Toowoomba frigate left Perth last night and should arrive at the search area in about three days, while a ship with a black box detector and autonomous underwater vehicle will depart today, it said. Eight aircraft sighted multiple items yesterday in a search area that covered about 252,000 square kilometers (97,300 square miles), while 10 planes will be involved in today’s search.
White, red and orange “suspicious objects” had been seen as the Chinese ship Jinggangshan, carrying two helicopters, joined the Haixun 01 in the search area, the official Xinhua news agency said.
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Debris retrieved from Indian Ocean not from MH370
Authorities say that objects scooped out of the ocean off Western Australia are not part of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority has confirmed a Chinese ship retrieved objects from the southern Indian Ocean on Saturday.
However, it's believed the items are not related to the flight and are more likely fishing objects or rubbish, AMSA have said today.
read more
Debris retrieved from Indian Ocean not from MH370
Some objects scooped out of the ocean off Western Australia are not part of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, authorities have said.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority ( AMSA) has confirmed a Chinese ship retrieved objects from the southern Indian Ocean Saturday.
It's, however, believed that the items are not related to the flight and are more likely fishing objects or rubbish, TVNZ quoted AMSA as saying early Sunday.
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Ships retrieve objects in search for missing jet
A Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orion flies past the HMAS Success in the search for debris
A DAY after the search for the Malaysian jetliner shifted to a new area of the Indian Ocean, ships were last night plucking objects from the sea to determine whether they were related to the missing jet.
None are as yet confirmed to be from the plane. But a Chinese military plane scanning part of the search zone – which is roughly the size of Poland – spotted several objects floating in the sea yesterday, including two bearing colours of the missing jet, which rescuers were last night attempting to collect.
It was not immediately clear whether those objects were related to the investigation into what happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared on 8 March en route from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing.
New objects seen, but still no evidence of missing Malaysian jet
An object floats in the southern Indian Ocean in this picture taken from a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3K2 Orion aircraft searching for missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 on March 29, 2014 over the southern Indian Ocean
A day after the search for the Malaysian jetliner shifted to a new area of the Indian Ocean, ships on Saturday plucked objects from the sea to determine whether they were related to the missing Boeing 777. None were confirmed to be from the plane. That leaves searchers with no sign of the jet three weeks after it disappeared.
Meanwhile, a Chinese military plane scanning part of the search zone spotted several objects floating in the sea, including two bearing colors of the missing jet. But it's not yet clear whether they are related to the investigation into what happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing.
Officials say the second day of searching in the new area ended with no evidence found of the jet.
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Chinese ship in search area looking for suspicious MH370 debris spotted by Chinese aircraft
Staff members aboard a boat of Chinese Maritime Safety Administration patrol ship Haixun 01 search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean, March 29, 2014. Chinese patrol ship Haixun 01 on Saturday continued to search the area to relocate objects spotted earlier Friday by airborne searchers for the missing flight. Photo: Xinhua
A Chinese warship has arrived in waters near the place where suspicious objects possibly related to the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 were spotted by Chinese aircraft, but made no findings yet as of late Saturday.
A helicopter taking off from the warship Jingangshan spent two hours in the air looking for the three objects spotted by a Chinese military aircraft earlier on Saturday. However, there is no confirmation yet of Saturday's sighting, according to navy officials aboard the ship.
A Chinese Ilyushin IL-76 aircraft reported spotting three floating items, which are white, red and orange respectively, a Xinhua reporter aboard the military plane said.
Objects plucked from ocean checked for link to flight
A day after the search for the Malaysian jetliner shifted to a new area of the Indian Ocean, ships on Saturday plucked objects from the sea to determine whether they were related to the missing jet. None were confirmed to be from the plane, leaving searchers with no sign of the jet three weeks after it disappeared.
Meanwhile, a Chinese military plane scanning part of the search zone, which is roughly the size of Poland, spotted several objects floating in the sea, including two bearing colors of the missing jet.
It was not immediately clear whether those objects were related to the investigation into what happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing, and officials said the second day of searching in the new area ended with no evidence found of the jet.
New debris found in ocean but still no sign of plane
Chinese ships trawled a new area in the Indian Ocean for a missing Malaysian passenger jet yesterday, as the search for Flight MH370 entered its fourth week.
A Chinese military plane scanning part of a search zone for signs of debris from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has spotted several objects floating in the sea, including two bearing colours of the missing jet.
But it was not immediately clear whether the objects were related to the three-week-old investigation, and the second day of searching in an area the size of Poland ended with no evidence found of the jet, officials said.
Black box detector to join Malaysia jet search
Erin Gormley, aerospace engineer at the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), demonstrates how data from a flight recorder can be interpreted into an animation of a plane's flight path at the NTSB Vehicle Recorder Laboratory in Washington, Friday, March 28, 2014. (AP / Charles Dharapak)
A warship with an aircraft black box detector was set to depart Australia on Sunday to search for the missing Malaysian jetliner, a day after ships plucked objects from the Indian Ocean to determine whether they were related to the missing plane. None were confirmed to be from the plane, leaving searchers with no sign of the jet three weeks after it disappeared.
Twenty-nine Chinese family members, seeking answers from Malaysia's government as to what happened to their loved ones, arrived in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, said Malaysia Airlines commercial director Hugh Dunleavy. Two-thirds of the 227 passengers aboard Flight 370 were Chinese, and their relatives have expressed deep frustration with Malaysian authorities since the plane went missing.
It could take days for the Australian warship, the navy support ADV Ocean Shield, to reach the search zone, which shifted northeast Friday to an area roughly the size of Poland. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority, which oversees the search, said the ship will depart Perth on Sunday for the zone, about 1,850 kilometres to the west.
related:
Chinese plane spots 3 objects in search area for missing Malaysian jet
Missing Malaysia Airlines jet: How the search has changed
MH370 search reveals limits of modern technology
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Missing plane's black box 'chirps' to go silent by mid-April
This graphic shows the approximate position of around 122 objects - believed to be parts of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 - in the southern Indian Ocean. (AP)
Equipment inside two nearly indestructible boxes aboard the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH 370 recorded critical information that would help investigators reconstruct what went wrong. The flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder have beacons that are sending out ''pings'' which searchers could track back to the main wreckage. But the batteries run out in about two weeks. Satellite images show debris floating in the southern Indian Ocean, but search crews still have not confirmed it is from the plane. If they can do that, searchers will calculate where the bulk of the plane may have come to rest on the sea floor - and then go to that area and start listening for the pings.
ORANGE, NOT BLACK - They're commonly called black boxes, but the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder are actually orange - so they can be more easily seen. The data recorder logs performance and other metrics, including speed, altitude and direction. In all, it can keep 1,000 different measurements, giving investigators a rich cache of information. Those measurements cover the 25 hours prior to a crash. The voice recorder captures two hours of sound from several microphones in the cockpit. It runs on a continuous loop, so audio from the critical moments during which the plane diverted west from its Malaysia-China route - about seven hours before it is believed to have crashed - have been erased.
RACING TIME - Each recorder has its own beacon, bolted to the box's outside, which once activated by water emits a chirp every second. The chirp can't be heard by the naked ear - it requires special equipment to detect. A beacon's battery is designed to last 30 days. Once that month is up, the pings begin to fade in the same way that a flashlight with failing batteries begins to dim. According to Chuck Schofield of Dukane Seacom Inc., a company
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Ships to try to recover new objects spotted in search for Malaysian jet
A Chinese aircraft flying over the search zone for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 on Saturday spotted several objects floating in the sea, including two bearing colors of the missing plane, but it was not immediately clear whether they were related to the investigation, officials said.
A Chinese Ilyushin IL-76 spotted three floating objects, China's official Xinhua News Agency said, a day after several planes and ships combing the newly targeted area closer to mainland Australia saw several other objects.
Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters near Kuala Lumpur after meeting several families of passengers on the plane that there was no new information on the objects spotted Friday, which could just be just sea trash or could be from the jetliner, which went missing three weeks ago.
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11 Objects Have Been Identified In The New Search Area For MH370
New alleged objects found from missing Malaysian plane
China ship searching for objects in new area
read more
related:
MH370: Five Years On
MP Lim Wee Kiak Retracts Statement On MH370
Debris of MH370 found after 515 days
Zero Days To Locate Black Box of MH370
Search For Mystery Of MH370 Continues
Searching For The Disappearance of MH370
Flight MH370 Ended In The Southern Indian Ocean
Flight MH370: What's Known And What's Speculation
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 Goes Missing
Chinese plane spots 3 objects in search area for missing Malaysian jet
Missing Malaysia Airlines jet: How the search has changed
MH370 search reveals limits of modern technology
read more
Missing plane's black box 'chirps' to go silent by mid-April
Equipment inside two nearly indestructible boxes aboard the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH 370 recorded critical information that would help investigators reconstruct what went wrong. The flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder have beacons that are sending out ''pings'' which searchers could track back to the main wreckage. But the batteries run out in about two weeks. Satellite images show debris floating in the southern Indian Ocean, but search crews still have not confirmed it is from the plane. If they can do that, searchers will calculate where the bulk of the plane may have come to rest on the sea floor - and then go to that area and start listening for the pings.
ORANGE, NOT BLACK - They're commonly called black boxes, but the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder are actually orange - so they can be more easily seen. The data recorder logs performance and other metrics, including speed, altitude and direction. In all, it can keep 1,000 different measurements, giving investigators a rich cache of information. Those measurements cover the 25 hours prior to a crash. The voice recorder captures two hours of sound from several microphones in the cockpit. It runs on a continuous loop, so audio from the critical moments during which the plane diverted west from its Malaysia-China route - about seven hours before it is believed to have crashed - have been erased.
RACING TIME - Each recorder has its own beacon, bolted to the box's outside, which once activated by water emits a chirp every second. The chirp can't be heard by the naked ear - it requires special equipment to detect. A beacon's battery is designed to last 30 days. Once that month is up, the pings begin to fade in the same way that a flashlight with failing batteries begins to dim. According to Chuck Schofield of Dukane Seacom Inc., a company
read more
Wife says MH370 pilot 'retreated into a shell': British tabloid
Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, pilot of the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, with his wife Faizah Khan and two of their three children. -- FILE PHOTO: CHINA PRESS
The wife of the pilot at the helm of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 told investigators that he stopped speaking to her in the weeks leading up to the ill-fated flight.
Madam Faizah Khanum Mustafa Khan had allegedly informed investigators that "he retreated into a shell", spending time alone in his room in the house they shared, Britain's The Mail on Sunday reported.
More than three weeks since flight MH370 disappeared with 239 crew and passengers aboard, investigators in Malaysia suspect that the plane may have been deliberately steered off course.
Family, friends condemn British tabloid report on MH370 pilot
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Family speaks of pilot’s ‘disturbing behaviour’ in weeks prior to flight MH370
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Speaking about the mystery for the first time, the wife and daughter of Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah said the 53-year-old pilot had been distracted and withdrawn in the weeks before the aircraft’s disappearance
According to the same report, no suicide note has been found and no motive established, but police are continuing to concentrate their inquiries on the pilot’s background and whether his state of mind before the flight may be a factor.
Quoting a source close to the pilot’s family, The Mail on Sunday reported that Faizah told investigators that Zaharie had stopped speaking to her and spent time alone in his room where he had built a flight simulator.
"He just retreated into a shell. I found him distant and difficult to understand," she said, adding that her husband was so withdrawn he hardly spoke to his sons and was not close to them.
Dashed hopes
A LITTLE light is slowly being shed on the mystery disappearance of flight MH370. The Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 vanished 16 days ago during a flight between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing. Distraught relatives of the mostly Chinese 239 passengers and crew, increasingly angered by a lack of information, received a call and text message on March 24th from Malaysia's government: the plane and all aboard were lost "beyond all reasonable doubt". At a press conference shortly thereafter Najib Razak, Malaysia's prime minister, confirmed the sad news
Those hoping for improbable news that their loved ones might yet return have had their hopes dashed. But for observers the announcement confirmed what has seemed likely for some days: that the plane had crashed in the southern Indian Ocean. MH370 was last heard from when the co-pilot sent a short radio message shortly before the plane unaccountably turned off its route. Then communication by radio, and through a transponder that sent information to ground radars, ceased. Malaysian military radar tracked the plane as it flew into the Indian Ocean. After that only ACARS, a system that usually relays engine and other flight data, left a clue to the plane's whereabouts: a series of "pings" picked up by the system's satellite that put it in one of two "corridors" (see map). Now fresh analysis of that "ping" data by Inmarsat, the satellite's British operator, puts the plane to the far end of the southern corridor, off the coast of western Australia.
That always seemed the likeliest area to search for the plane, given that the northern route bristles with military radars which would have picked up the plane had it travelled over land. And the available fuel, as Inmarsat has also concluded, would have put it there too if the jet had flown in a straight line at cruising altitude.
The search in the area, however, has so far proved inconclusive despite satellites images from Australia, China and France picking up debris in the sea there. A Chinese plane has also spotted "suspicious" flotsam, and an Australian plane has reported seeing objects in the water. But so far, no vessel has found any of the debris, which would make it possible to determine whether it is part of the plane or merely some of the vast amount of debris that floats around the world's oceans.
Ships to try to recover new objects spotted in search for Malaysian jet
Objects spotted floating in a new search area for debris from the missing Malaysian jetliner need to be recovered and inspected before they can be linked to the plane, Australian officials said Saturday.
Eight planes were ready to comb the newly targeted area off the west coast of Australia after several objects were spotted Friday, including two rectangular items that were blue and gray, and ships on the scene will attempt to recover them, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said.
"The objects cannot be verified or discounted as being from MH370 until they are relocated and recovered by ships," the authority said in a statement. "It is not known how much flotsam, such as from fishing activities, is ordinarily there. At least one distinctive fishing object has been identified."
related: Updates on MH370
Chinese aircraft spots 'three suspicious red, white and orange objects'
A Chinese military plane involved in the hunt for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 today spotted suspicious red, white and orange objects floating in the South Indian Ocean, as the search efforts entered the fourth week.
Australian officials coordinating the operation moved the search area 680 miles north east yesterday - it was shifted after new radar data analysis suggested the jet flew faster than originally thought and would have used up more fuel, which might have reduced the distance it travelled.
A Chinese Ilyushin IL-76 flying over the new site detected the floating items today around 1,150 miles west of Perth, the official Xinhua news agency said. The Chinese navy vessel Jinggangshan, which carries two helicopters, reached the new search area early today where it was expected to focus on searching for plane surfaces, oil slicks and life jackets.
Chinese Military Aircraft Spots Three Suspicious Objects In New Search Area
A Chinese Ilyushin IL-76 aircraft spotted on Saturday three suspicious objects in a new search waters in the Indian Ocean that is north to the previous area, China's Xinhua news agency reported.
The latest spotted floating items are white, red and orange respectively, according to a Xinhua reporter aboard the military plane. A marker was dropped and the Chinese crew have informed Australian authorities of the new findings.
Also on Saturday, two Chinese ships have reached the revised searching area which is defined according to the latest analysis.
Chinese plane spots 3 new floating objects but none recovered yet in search for missing jet
A Chinese aircraft flying over the search zone for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 on Saturday spotted several objects floating in the sea, including two bearing colors of the missing plane, but it was not immediately clear whether they were related to the investigation, officials said.
A Chinese Ilyushin IL-76 spotted three floating objects, China's official Xinhua News Agency said, a day after several planes and ships combing the newly targeted area closer to mainland Australia saw several other objects.
Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters near Kuala Lumpur after meeting several families of passengers on the plane that there was no new information on the objects spotted Friday, which could just be just sea trash or could be from the jetliner, which went missing three weeks ago.
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11 objects spotted in search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370
An object floating in the water was seen on a computer screen on board a Royal New Zealand Air Force plane searching for wreckage from Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370
A Chinese ship has arrived at the new search area to relocate objects thought to be part of the missing Malaysia Airlines plane. Another five ships, including Australia's HMAS Success are enroute and expect to arrive in the search zone later today.
The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration ship Haixun 01 has been on scene for relocating objects from first light.
A Royal New Zealand Air Force Orion spotted 11 white rectangular objects in the Indian Ocean on Friday.
Missing Malaysia Airlines jet: Five planes spot debris in new search location west of Perth
A marker flare is deployed into the Indian Ocean from a Royal New Zealand Air Force plane searching for plane debris off the west coast of Australia
Five aircraft spotted coloured objects in the new search area for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight on Friday.
Photographs of the objects were taken and were to be assessed overnight, while a Chinese ship in the new search area was directed towards the debris.
Earlier in the day, the search area was shifted 1000 kilometres north-east after international air crash investigators had their ”most credible lead” yet.
The new area was calculated after analysis of radar data indicated the aircraft was travelling faster than previously thought, meaning it would have used its fuel more quickly and travelled less distance.
Fresh objects seen in new Malaysia jet search area
A view of an object floating in the water is seen on a computer screen onboard a Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNAF) plane searching for wreckage from Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in the new Indian Ocean search area in this March 28, 2014 still image taken from video. . REUTERS/Pool via Reuters TV
Fresh objects spotted by planes searching for a missing Malaysian passenger jet in a new area of the southern Indian Ocean have again raised hopes of unravelling the three-week old mystery.
Australian authorities coordinating the operation dramatically moved the air and sea search 1,100 km (685 miles) north on Friday after new analysis of radar and satellite data concluded Malaysia Airlines (MASM.KL) Flight MH370 travelled faster and for a shorter distance after vanishing from civilian radar screens on March 8.
Australia said late on Friday that five international aircraft had spotted "multiple objects of various colours" in the new search area some 1,850 km (1,150 miles) west of Perth.
11 white rectangular objects have been spotted by The Royal New Zealand Air Force in the new search area for missing flight MH370, 1680km west of Perth
Chinese and Australian ships are now enroute to location to track down a cluster of debris sitting just below the surface of the water and thought to be part of the missing plane.
New Zealand Air Vice-Marshal Kevin Short says the objects were within five metres of each other but “It’s hard to identify because all you’re seeing is this one-metre rectangular piece of material.”
“There seems to be patches of these objects and that’s not unexpected, looking at how long the aircraft’s been missing.
New alleged objects found from missing Malaysian plane
Five planes have spotted "objects" in the new area of the Indian Ocean being searched for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, Australian officials say, BBC reports.
The sightings would need confirmation by ship, possibly on Saturday, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (Amsa) said in a statement.
Earlier it was announced the search would now focus on an area 1,100km (700 miles) north-east of the previous zone.
Fresh Objects Seen In New MH370 Search Area
Pilot of an RAAF Orion AP-3C in the search for Malaysia Airlines MH370. Image: Australian Maritime Safety Authority
Fresh objects spotted by planes searching for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in a new area of the southern Indian Ocean have again raised hopes of unravelling the three-week old mystery.
Australian authorities coordinating the operation moved the air and sea search 1,100 km (685 miles) north on Friday after new analysis of radar and satellite data concluded the Boeing 777 travelled faster and for a shorter distance after vanishing from civilian radar screens on March 8.
Australia said late on Friday that five international aircraft had spotted "multiple objects of various colors" in the new search area some 1,850 km (1,150 miles) west of Perth.
Australians Say Latest Objects Need to Be Checked
Objects spotted floating in a new search area for debris from the missing Malaysian jetliner need to be recovered and inspected before they can be linked to the plane, Australian officials said Saturday.
Eight planes were ready to comb the newly targeted area off the west coast of Australia after several objects were spotted Friday, including two rectangular items that were blue and gray, and ships on the scene will attempt to recover them, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said.
"The objects cannot be verified or discounted as being from MH370 until they are relocated and recovered by ships," the authority said in a statement. "It is not known how much flotsam, such as from fishing activities, is ordinarily there. At least one distinctive fishing object has been identified."
AUSTRALIA: 'CREDIBLE LEAD' SHIFTS JET SEARCH AREA
The search zone for the Malaysian airliner that crashed in the Indian Ocean nearly three weeks ago has shifted 1,100 kilometers (680 miles) to the northeast after new analysis of radar data suggested the plane flew faster than thought and used more fuel, which may have reduced the distance it traveled, Australia said Friday.
The revised search area comes as the weather cleared enough Friday to allow planes to hunt for fresh clues to the fate of the plane carrying 239 people that went missing March 8.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority said the change was based on new analysis provided by the international investigative team in Malaysia.
Australians say latest objects need to be inspected before linking to missing plane
Objects spotted floating in a new search area for debris from the missing Malaysian jetliner need to be recovered and inspected before they can be linked to the plane, Australian officials said Saturday.
Eight planes were ready to comb the newly targeted area off the west coast of Australia after several objects were spotted Friday, including two rectangular items that were blue and gray, and ships on the scene will attempt to recover them, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said.
"The objects cannot be verified or discounted as being from MH370 until they are relocated and recovered by ships," the authority said in a statement. "It is not known how much flotsam, such as from fishing activities, is ordinarily there. At least one distinctive fishing object has been identified."
Malaysian jet debris hunt steps up, black box detectors arrive
U.S. equipment designed to detect black box signals arrived in Australia on Wednesday, as searchers stepped up efforts to find some trace of a Malaysian airliner thought to have crashed 18 days ago thousands of miles off course in the Indian Ocean.
A dozen aircraft from Australia, the United States, New Zealand, China, Japan and South Korea were once more scouring the seas some 2,500 km (1,550 miles) southwest of Perth in the hunt for wreckage, after bad weather on Tuesday forced the suspension of the search. (Undersea volcanoes, huge seas complicate MH370 search) "The crash zone is as close to nowhere as it's possible to be but it's closer to Australia than anywhere else," Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said, before leading the country's parliament in a moment's silence.
"A considerable amount of debris has been sighted in the area where the flight was last recorded. Bad weather and inaccessibility has so far prevented any of it from being recovered. But we are confident that it will be."
China ship searching for objects in new area
This image of one the objects spotted was taken by a journalist on board the New Zealand plane
A Chinese ship is scouring a new area of the Indian Ocean for "objects" spotted in the hunt for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet, Australia says.
The vessel has been at the scene trying to retrieve the items since first light, according to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (Amsa) says.
Aircraft are also travelling to the new search area, about 1,100km (700 miles) north-east of the previous zone.
related: Latest updates
New objects found in missing plane search
MULTIPLE new objects have been found after the search area for the lost Malaysian airliner was moved 680 miles north-east in response to analysis of radar data.
Five out of 10 aircraft hunting for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 found objects of various colours, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (Amsa) said. It was not clear whether the objects were from the plane, but they included two that were blue and grey - among the colours of the missing plane.
A Chinese patrol ship in the area will attempt to locate the objects tomorrow, Amsa said.
read more
related:
MH370: Five Years On
MP Lim Wee Kiak Retracts Statement On MH370
Debris of MH370 found after 515 days
Zero Days To Locate Black Box of MH370
Search For Mystery Of MH370 Continues
Searching For The Disappearance of MH370
Flight MH370 Ended In The Southern Indian Ocean
Flight MH370: What's Known And What's Speculation
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 Goes Missing
