Hundreds more objects spotted
Print Edition
HINTS about the lost Malaysian jetliner piled up yesterday, but there was precious little chance to track them down. Bad weather cut short the hunt for possible debris fields as satellite data revealed hundreds more objects that might be wreckage.
Not one piece of debris has been recovered from the plane that went down in the southern Indian Ocean on March 8.
For relatives of the 239 people on board Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, it was yet another agonizing day of waiting.
“Until something is picked up and analyzed to make sure it’s from MH370 we can’t believe it, but without anything found it’s just clues,” Steve Wang, whose 57-year-old mother was aboard the flight, said in Beijing. “Without that, it’s useless.”
Japan said it provided Malaysia with information from satellite images taken on Wednesday showing about 10 objects that might be debris from the plane, with the largest about 4 meters by 8 meters. The objects were about 2,500 kilometers southwest of Perth, Japan’s Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office said.
A Thai satellite also spotted about 300 objects, ranging from 2 meters to 16 meters long, said Anond Snidvongs, director of Thailand’s space technology development agency. He said the images, taken on Monday by the Thaichote satellite, took two days to process and were relayed to Malaysian authorities on Wednesday.
The objects were about 200km southwest of the area where a French satellite on Sunday spotted 122 objects. It’s not known whether the satellites detected the same objects — currents in the ocean can run a meter per second and wind could also move material.
The announcements came after the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said it had to pull back all 11 planes scheduled to take part in the search yesterday because of heavy rain, winds and low clouds. Five ships continued the hunt. All but three of the planes reached the search zone before the air search was suspended after two hours, AMSA spokesman Sam Cardwell said.
Visibility was poor to non-existent and the bad weather was expected to continue for another 24 hours.
If and when any wreckage is recovered, searchers will be able to narrow their hunt for the Boeing 777’s black boxes.
Malaysian officials said earlier this week that satellite data confirmed the plane crashed into the southern Indian Ocean. Yesterday, Malaysia Airlines ran a full-page condolence advertisement with a black background in a Malaysian newspaper.
“Our sincerest condolences go out to the loved ones of the 239 passengers, friends and colleagues. Words alone cannot express our enormous sorrow and pain,” read the advertisement in the New Straits Times.
Malaysia has been criticized over its handling of one of the most perplexing mysteries in aviation history.
Much of the most strident criticism has come from relatives of the Chinese passengers, some of whom expressed outrage that Malaysia had essentially declared their loved ones dead without recovering a single piece of wreckage.
Yesterday, Malaysian officials met China’s ambassador to Malaysia, Huang Huikang, “to request the government of China to engage and clarify the actual situation to the affected families in particular and the Chinese public in general,” a statement said.
Officials still don’t know why flight MH370 disappeared. Investigators have ruled out nothing — including mechanical or electrical failure, hijacking, sabotage, terrorism or issues related to the pilots or someone else on board.
Some speculation has focused on Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah and his state of mind, but his son, in an interview published in the New Straits Times yesterday, rejected the idea that his father might be to blame.
“I’ve read everything online. But I’ve ignored all the speculation. I know my father better,” Ahmad Seth said.
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