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BEIJING. — Aircraft and vessels reached the southern Indian Ocean to continue the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 yesterday, as Malaysia announced a further 122 objects that might be plane debris had been identified in satellite imagery.
Chinese aircraft and vessels arrived about 2 000km west of Perth yesterday to continue the search mission.
A Chinese IL-76 aircraft, the first plane taking off from Perth International Airport, reached its target area in the morning.
As the route was covered by thick clouds and weather conditions in the target area were unclear while approaching, the plane’s captain, Wang Quansheng, sought a meteorological update from Chinese icebreaker Xuelong, which was already in the area, a Xinhua correspondent aboard the plane said.
The plane, hovering at about 300 metres above the sea, scoured about 7 000 square km before it returned to the Perth airport.
The crew told Xinhua gales of 12 metres/sec and 3 to 3,5-metre-high waves made spotting any floating objects from the air more difficult.
China has sent two IL-76 planes to Australia to join the search for missing Flight MH370. On Monday, one crew sighted two relatively big floating objects in the southern Indian Ocean.
However, the mission was suspended on Tuesday due to bad weather conditions and resumed yesterday.
A Chinese naval flotilla of supply ship Qiandaohu, missile destroyer Haikou and amphibious transport dock Kunlunshan, was searching the target area, an on-board Xinhua reporter said.
Another amphibious docking vessel, Jinggangshan, which had been previously sent to scour waters southwest of Sumatra, was sailing toward the new target area, and was expected to move into position on Sunday.
If yesterday’s search found nothing suspicious, the flotilla would move into the next phase, in which the ships would comb the area back and forth five times to ensure no clue had been overlooked.
Meanwhile, a Chinese merchant ship had reached waters where French satellites had detected some suspicious items.
In addition, more Chinese military and civilian vessels were en route to the southern Indian Ocean to join the search mission.
Malaysia’s Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told a Press briefing that, based on the Malaysian Remote Sensing Agency’s analysis of the latest satellite images taken on Sunday and provided on Tuesday by France-based Airbus Defence and Space, 122 potential objects were identified in an area of some 400 square km.
Some objects were one metre in length, while others were as long as 23 metres, the minister said, adding some items appeared to be bright, possibly indicating solid materials.
The newly identified objects were located approximately 2 557km from Perth, he said.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority said three objects were spotted in yesterday’s search of MH370 but none could be relocated on further passes, nor were they distinctive of the missing jetliner.
Civilian aircraft sighted two rope-shaped objects while a P-3 Orion from New Zealand spotted a blue one, the AMSA said via Twitter. — Xinhua.
Online Reporter