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A FRENCH SATELLITE scanning the Indian Ocean for remnants of a missing jetliner found a possible plane debris field containing 122 objects, a top Malaysian official said today, calling it “the most credible lead that we have.”
Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said the objects were more than 2,500 km southwest of Australia, in the area where a desperate, multinational hunt has been going on since other satellites detected possible jet debris.
Clouds obscured the latest satellite images, but dozens of objects could be seen in the gaps, ranging in length from one metre to 23 metre. Hishammuddin said some of them “appeared to be bright, possibly indicating solid materials.”
The images were taken on Sunday and relayed by French-based Airbus Defence and Space, a division of Europe’s Airbus Group; its businesses include the operation of satellites and satellite communications.
Various floating objects have been spotted by planes and satellites over the last week, including on Wednesday, when the Australian Maritime Safety Authority sent a tweet saying three more objects were seen. The authority said two objects seen from a civil aircraft appeared to be rope, and that a New Zealand military plane spotted a blue object.
Members of the Japan Disaster Relief Team. (Pic: AP Photo/Will Russell)
None of the objects were seen on a second pass, a frustration that has been repeated several times in the hunt for Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, missing since 8 March with 239 people aboard. It remains uncertain whether any of the objects came from the plane, they could have come from a cargo ship or something else.
“If it is confirmed to be , at least we can then we can move on to the next phase of deep sea surveillance search,” Hishammuddin said.
A total of 12 planes and five ships from the United States, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand were participating in the search, hoping to find even a single piece of the jet that could offer tangible evidence of a crash and provide clues to find the rest of the wreckage.
Malaysia announced on Monday that a mathematical analysis of the final known satellite signals from the plane showed that it had crashed in the sea, killing everyone on board.
The new data greatly reduced the search zone, but it remains huge, an area estimated at 1.6 million sq-km, about the size of Alaska.
“We’re throwing everything we have at this search,” Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott told Nine Network television.
“This is about the most inaccessible spot imaginable. It’s thousands of kilometers from anywhere,” he later told Seven Network television. He vowed that “we will do what we can to solve this riddle.”
In Beijing, some families held out a glimmer of hope their loved ones might somehow have survived. About two-thirds of the missing were Chinese, and their relatives have lashed out at Malaysia for essentially declaring their family members dead without any physical evidence of the plane’s remains. Many also believe Malaysia has not been transparent or swift in communicating information with them about the status of the search.
Hussein shows a printout of the latest satellite image of objects. (Pic: AP Photo/Joshua Paul)
Wang Chunjiang, whose brother was on the plane, said he felt “very conflicted.”
“We want to know the truth, but we are afraid the debris of the plane should be found,” he said while waiting at a hotel near the Beijing airport for a meeting with Malaysian officials. “If they find debris, then our last hope would be dashed. We will not have even the slightest hope.”
China dispatched a special envoy to Kuala Lumpur, Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui, who met Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and other top officials Wednesday, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
China, which now has Chinese warships and an icebreaker in the search zone, has been intent on supporting the interests of the Chinese relatives of passengers, backing their demands for detailed information on how Malaysia concluded the jet went down in the southern Indian Ocean.
That also is the likely reason why Chinese authorities, normally extremely wary of any spontaneous demonstrations that could undermine social stability, permitted a rare protest on Tuesday outside the Malaysian embassy in Beijing, during which relatives chanted slogans, threw water bottles and briefly tussled with police who kept them separated from a swarm of journalists.
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Please god let them find some evidence that’s its the plane so the friends and familys can start mourning and put this awful tragic time in their lives behind them
It’s a pity in this day and age, that black boxes can’t hold data and info in the “cloud” as opposed to in a physical black box!
Ever tried the wifi in the southern indian ocean?
Correct! They need ships on the water to check out the debris once it is located before it goes under the surface again. Unfortunately this area has been labelled “as close to nowhere as possible” which is extremely saddening and hard to bear for the families concerned.
It’s a pity the didn’t continue making the Catalans sea planes used during the Second World War . They would be perfect for this role as they could land on sea when they see a debris field and confirm or deny it’s linked to this plane . Could there be submarines in area now listening for the pings and could also check out these debris fields. I guess they are doing there best
I can assure you that the Catalan would have a very slim chance of landing in that sea area and no chance of taking off again. I’ve been down that way twice, it is dog rough and unpredictable and even going out on deck on the largest of ships is highly dangerous so I don’t envy those with the job of securing any wreckage out of the water. HMAS Success has a bigger crane than the one shown[I think] and even then will need the highest of skills to lift anything bigger than a few hundred kilos in such seas.
They will need a fleet of ocean going fishing trawlers to comb the area otherwise they will only retrieve bits and pieces of flotsam.
A fishing trawler?? I’m not sure you’re being serious, Chris, or having a laugh. The latest search area is 2500km off the coast of Australia in some of the most remote and inhospitable waters on the planet. What fishing trawler would be of any use there even if it could manage a 5000km round trip? They are having to bring in massive icebreaker ships and some of the largest naval vessels just to reach the area.
Unfortunately even if they find the black boxes, they will probably still be mystified as to what happened. Incredibly in the modern age, flight data recorders only capture the last 2 hours of cockpit recordings, as they continuously record over every 2 hours. This means the recordings from the critical phase, 60 minutes after takeoff when it deviated off course, are lost forever.
I heard that joe but if they do find the recorders they are digital recorders and two hours of talking time is actually a lot , I don’t think it’s like old tapes that continue to run regardless , certainly in the radio business we run digital snoop tapes that only run when the presenters talk and not record the songs for example so in music stations 2 hours of actual talking can cover 12 hours or more so I may be wrong but I think the 2 hour thing mightn’t be the biggest problem , finding the recorders is a hell of a challenge
I’ll stand corrected but I’m pretty sure the CVR is realtime. It only records in two hour loops recording across four audible channels, recording all cockpit sounds, voice and cockpit surroundings. It’s an important point a few aviation experts have already made – that the final two hours may reveal nothing, though I would hope it could still capture the engine flame out.
It’s not too long ago that regulations only insisted that 30 mins was required from the CVR.
I’m far from aviation expert on this subject and would stand corrected in those specifics , it seems like a very restrictive use of modern technology if they only have 2 hour loops — but 30 mins limits was definitely too restrictive , common sense never mind aviation knowledge would tell ya that !
This is an interesting development………
A identical sister of this very aircraft that went missing is according to a plane spotters site is currently in storage in a hangar at Ben Gurion international airport in Israel since November 2013..
http://www.planespotters.net/Production_List/Boeing/777/28416,N105GT-GA-Telesis-php
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