Breaking: Chinese satellites detect object that could be MH370

UPDATE 9:00pm: The Malaysian authorities announced this evening that France has provided new images showing debris that might belong to MH370 in the southern search zone.

Malaysia’s transport ministry said in a statement: “This morning, Malaysia received new satellite images from the French authorities … Malaysia immediately relayed these images to the Australian rescue co-ordination center.”

This AM, Msia received new satellite images from French authorities showing potential objects in southern corridor #MH370 @HishammuddinH2O

— H2O Comms (@H2OComms) March 23, 2014

As of 1430 Msia time, Australian officials have informed us that they have not made any new sightings regarding #MH370 @HishammuddinH2O

— H2O Comms (@H2OComms) March 23, 2014

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UPDATE 5:30pm: The wooden pallet that prompted the search party to go back to where it was originally spotted, has not been sighted a second time. Chinese warships are also on the way, to aid in the search.

Mike Barton, from the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, said, “China is very focused on assisting with the search.”

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UPDATE 11:30am: Prime Minister Tony Abbott has revealed that debris, including a wooden pallet has been spotted within Australia’s search zone.

The concentrated debris was seen with a naked eye by a civilian search aircraft, tasked by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority.

Mr Abbott said: “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, no more than hope, that we might be on the road to discovering what did happen to this ill-fated aircraft.”

The Royal Australian Navy’s HMAS Success and two merchant ships have been relocated to try and identify the material, including the wooden pallets that initially marked suspicions the objects could be linked to the missing plane.

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Chinese satellites have reportedly captured an image of an object floating in the Southern Indian Ocean. It’s believed the object could be debris from missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

China has suggested the object was 22 metres long and 13 metres wide and floating around 120 kilometres south west from the area where two other objects were detected earlier this week.

The most recent image was reportedly captured on March 18. The satellites pictures of objects that prompted the Australian search were captured two days earlier, on March 16.

Chinese ships are on their way to the area now.

Meanwhile, Australia is continuing its search for MH370 in waters around 2300 kilometres south west of Perth.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 went missing on March 8 during a flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing, China. It was carrying 239 passengers and crew.

Since then, many theories about what happened to the flight have emerged. You can read those here and here.

More to come.

Tags: news-and-current-affairs

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