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| A member of Indonesian National Search And Rescue Agency (BASARNAS) uses a binocular to scan the horizon during a search operation for the missing Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 conducted on the waters of the Strait of Malacca off Sumatra island, Indonesia, Wednesday, March 12, 2014. Malaysia asked India to join the expanding search for the missing Boeing 777 near the Andaman Sea, far to the northwest of its last reported position and a further sign Wednesday that authorities have no idea where the plane might be more than four days after it vanished. |
KUALA LUMPUR,
Malaysia (AP) -- Satellite images on a Chinese government website
show suspected debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner
floating off the southern tip of Vietnam, near the plane's original
flight path, China's Xinhua News Agency reported Wednesday.
The
revelation could provide searchers with a focus that has eluded them
since the plane disappeared with 239 people aboard early Saturday.
The
Xinhua report said the images from around 11 a.m. on Sunday appear to
show "three suspected floating objects" of varying sizes, the largest
about 24 meters (79 feet) by 22 meters (72 feet).
The
report includes coordinates of a location in the sea off the southern
tip of Vietnam and east of Malaysia. The images originally were posted
on a national defense technology website.
No
other governments have confirmed the Xinhua report, which did not say
when Chinese officials became aware of the images and associated them
with the missing plane.
The search for the
plane, which left Kuala Lumpur for Beijing before disappearing early
Saturday, has encompassed 35,800 square miles (92,600 square kilometers)
of Southeast Asia and on Wednesday expanded toward India.
Two-thirds
of the passengers on the flight were Chinese, and the Chinese
government has put increasing pressure on Malaysian officials to find
solve the mystery of the plane's disappearance.
Also,
Wednesday, it was revealed that the last message from the cockpit of
the missing flight was routine.
"All right, good night," was the signoff
transmitted to air traffic controllers five days ago.
Then
the Boeing 777 vanished as it cruised over the South China Sea toward
Vietnam, and nothing has been seen or heard of the jetliner since.
Those
final words were picked up by controllers and relayed in Beijing to
anguished relatives of some of the people aboard Flight MH370.
The
new Chinese reports of the satellite images came after several days of
sometimes confusing and conflicting statements from Malaysian officials.
Earlier
Wednesday, the Malaysian military officially disclosed why it was
searching on both sides of country: A review of military radar records
showed what might have been the plane turning back and crossing westward
into the Strait of Malacca.
That would conflict with the latest images on the Chinese website.
For
now, authorities said the international search effort would stay
focused on the South China Sea and the strait leading toward the Andaman
Sea.
Chinese impatience has grown.
"There's
too much information and confusion right now. It is very hard for us to
decide whether a given piece of information is accurate," Chinese
Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in Beijing. "We will not give
it up as long as there's still a shred of hope."
"We
have nothing to hide," said Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin
Hussein. "There is only confusion if you want to see confusion."
Flight
MH370 disappeared from civilian radar screens at 1:30 a.m. Saturday at
an altitude of about 35,000 feet (10,660 meters) above the Gulf of
Thailand between Malaysia and southern Vietnam. It sent no distress
signals or any indication it was experiencing problems.
The
amount of time needed to find aircraft that go down over the ocean can
vary widely. Planes that crash into relatively shallow areas, like the
waters off Vietnam where the Malaysian jet is missing, are far easier to
locate and recover than those that plunge deep into undersea canyons or
mountain ranges.
By contrast, much of the Gulf of Thailand is less than 300 feet (91 meters) deep.
The
Malaysian government said it had asked India to join in the search near
the Andaman Sea, suggesting the jetliner might have reached those
waters after crossing into the Strait of Malacca, some 400 kilometers
(250 miles) from the flight's last-known coordinates.
Malaysian
officials met in Beijing with several hundred Chinese relatives of
passengers to explain the search and investigation, and to relay the
last transmission that Malaysian air traffic controllers received before
the plane entered Vietnamese airspace, according to a participant in
the meeting.
Aviation officials in Vietnam said they never heard from the plane.
Its
sudden disappearance led to initial speculation of a catastrophic
incident that caused it to disintegrate. Another possibility is that it
continued to fly despite a failure of its electrical systems, which
could have knocked out communications, including transponders that
enable the plane to be identified by commercial radar.
Authorities
have not ruled out any possible cause, including mechanical failure,
pilot error, sabotage and terrorism, and they are waiting to find any
wreckage or debris to determine what went wrong.
In
June 2013, Boeing issued a safety alert to Boeing 777 operators,
telling them to inspect for corrosion and cracks in the crown fuselage
around a satellite antenna. The alert says one airline found a 16-inch
crack in one plane, then checked other 777s and found more cracking.
"Cracks
in the fuselage skin that are not found and repaired can propagate to
the point where the fuselage skin structure cannot sustain limit load,"
Boeing said. "When the fuselage skin cannot sustain limit load, this can
result in possible rapid decompression and loss of structural
integrity."
Two U.S. Federal Aviation
Administration technical experts and a regional representative are in
Kuala Lumpur as part of an NTSB team supporting the investigation.
Experts in air traffic control and radar are providing technical help,
the board said.
Hishammuddin described the
multinational search as unprecedented. Some 43 ships and 39 aircraft
from at least eight nations were scouring an area to the east and west
of Peninsular Malaysia.
"It's not something
that is easy. We are looking at so many vessels and aircraft, so many
countries to coordinate, and a vast area for us to search," he told a
news conference. "But we will never give up. This we owe to the families
of those on board."
Confusion over whether
the plane had been seen flying west prompted speculation that different
arms of the government might have different opinions about its location,
or even that authorities were holding back information.
Earlier
in the week, Malaysia's head of civil aviation, Azharuddin Abdul
Rahman, was asked why the Strait of Malacca was being searched and
replied, "There are things I can tell you, and things I can't,"
suggesting that the government wasn't being completely transparent.
If all those on board are confirmed dead, it would be the deadliest commercial air accident in 10 years.
Choi
Tat Sang, a 74-year-old Malaysian, said his family is still holding out
hope that the plane and all on board are safe. His 45-year-old
daughter-in-law, Goh Sock Lay, was the chief flight attendant. Her
14-year-old daughter, an only child, has been crying every day since the
plane's disappearance.
"We are heartbroken. We are continuing to pray for her safety and for everyone on the flight," he said.
