Have they FINALLY found flight MH370? French satellite spots 122 objects up to 75ft long in Indian Ocean that appear to be debris from doomed airliner -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- New satellite images have revealed 122 objects in the southern Indian Ocean that could be debris from the Malaysian jetliner missing since March 8 with 239 people on board, Malaysias acting transport minister said. The find has dramatically narrowed the search area, with the debris spotted across an area measuring just 155 square miles (400 square kilometres). In the past few days the search area has measured around 622,000 square miles. Hishammuddin Hussein told a news conference that the images were captured by France-based Airbus Defence and Space on March 23. They are the fourth set of satellite images to show potential debris from Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in a remote part of the Indian Ocean roughly 2,500 km (1,550 miles) south west of Perth. The objects are believed to be solid and range from one metre to 23 metres (three to 75 feet) long. It is understood some pieces of debris are bright but authorities have not confirmed whether they are from missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. Flight MH370 vanished from civilian radar screens less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing, and investigators believe someone on the flight may have shut off the planes communications systems. Partial military radar tracking showed it turning west and recrossing the Malay Peninsula, apparently under the control of a skilled pilot. Malaysias air force has released few details of its radar tracking beyond saying the plane was last detected off the northwest coast heading towards India. But the countrys deputy defence minister, Abdul Rahim Bakri, told parliament that no action was taken when the unidentified plane was spotted because it was assumed it had been ordered to turn back, local media said. It was detected by our radar, but the turn back was by a non-hostile plane and we thought maybe it was at the directive of the control tower, he was quoted as saying. Asked at the news conference whether air force radar operators thought the plane had been told to turn back by air traffic controllers, Hishammuddin, who is also defence minister, said he could not confirm it. A dozen aircraft from Australia, the United States, New Zealand, China, Japan and South Korea were once more scouring the seas southwest of Perth in the hunt for wreckage on Wednesday, after bad weather the previous day forced the suspension of the search. The area is renowned among mariners for high winds and big waves and the good weather is unlikely to last. ‘This is only going to be a narrow window of opportunity by the looks of things, because another weather system is moving in for Thursday, which looks like that will bring an increase in winds again and also lead to a reduction in visibility through the rain associated with the cold front,’ Neil Bennett, a spokesman for Australias Bureau of Meteorology, told Reuters. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak this week confirmed Flight MH370 had crashed in the southern Indian Ocean.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Mar 2014 12:38:09 +0000
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