The first plane sent Friday to fly over one of the remotest places on
Earth returned empty-handed from its hunt through rough seas for
objects that may be from the missing Malaysia Airlines plane, Australian
officials said.
Another three planes were still in the area
trying to help solve the nearly 2-week-old aviation mystery, and another
was on the way to look for two large objects a satellite detected
floating off the southwest coast of Australia about halfway to the
desolate islands of the Antarctic.
The area in the southern Indian
Ocean is so remote is takes aircraft four hours to fly there and four
hours back, and leaves them only about two hours to search.
The
satellite discovery raised new hope of finding the vanished jet and sent
another emotional jolt to the families of the 239 people aboard.
A
search Thursday with four planes in cloud and rain found nothing, and
so far efforts Friday were the same, with a Royal Australian Air Force
P3 Orion plane flying back to Australia.
Two more Orions and an
ultra-long-range Bombardier Global Express were still scouring the area
2,300 kilometers (1,400 miles) from western Australia, according to the
Australian Maritime Safety Authority. A U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon aircraft
also was in the air, but like the other planes, once it arrives it will
have enough fuel for only two to three hours of search time before
returning to Perth.
Lisa Martin, spokeswoman for the Australian
Maritime Safety Authority, said weather conditions were getting better
as the day wore on, with moderate seas and some cloud cover, and
improving visibility.
Mike Yardley, an air commodore with New
Zealand's air force, said the search Thursday was hampered when an Orion
was forced to duck below thick clouds and fog to a very low altitude of
60 meters (200 feet).
But Yardley was optimistic that the
searchers will find the objects. "We will find it — I'm sure about that
piece of it. The only reason we wouldn't find it was that it has sunk,"
he said of the large unidentified object spotted by the satellite.
"I've been on these missions before when it's taken a few days to come across it," he said.
Speaking
at a news conference in Papua New Guinea, Australian Prime Minister
Tony Abbott said, "We've been throwing everything we've got at that area
to try to learn more about what this debris might be."
He said that the objects "could just be a container that's fallen off a ship — we just don't know."
Abbott
spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping, whom he described as
"devastated." Of the 227 passengers on the missing flight, 154 were from
China.
"It's about the most inaccessible spot that you could
imagine on the face of the earth, but if there is anything down there we
will find it. We owe it to the families of those people to do no less,"
Abbott said.
The development also marked a new phase for the
anguished relatives of the passengers, who have been critical of
Malaysian officials for what the relatives say has been the slow release
of timely information.
In Beijing, relatives met Friday with
Malaysian officials at the Lido Hotel, where most have been staying
awaiting the latest news. Those who spoke said they had a two-hour
briefing about the search but that nothing new was said.
Wang
Zhen, son of artist Wang Linshi, said the meeting went smoothly but that
there were questions on why Malaysian authorities had provided so much
seemingly contradictory information.
Wang said he has hopes his
father can be found alive and was praying that the Australian reports
turn out to be false. He said he and other relatives are suspicious
about what they were being told by the Malaysian side, but are at a loss
as to what to do next.
"We feel they're hiding something from
us," said Wang, who was filling his days attending briefings and
watching the news for updates.
Another relative, Nan Jinyan, sister-in-law of passenger Yan Ling, said hope was slipping away.
"I'm psychologically prepared for the worst and I know the chances of them coming back alive are extremely small," she said.
One
of the objects on the satellite image was 24 meters (almost 80 feet)
long — which is longer than a standard container — and the other was 5
meters (15 feet).
The Norwegian cargo vessel Hoegh St. Petersburg,
with a Filipino crew of 20, arrived in the area and used lights to
search overnight before resuming a visual search Friday, said Ingar
Skiaker of Hoegh Autoliners, speaking to reporters in Oslo.
The
Norwegian ship, which transports cars, was on its way from South Africa
to Australia, he said. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority said
another commercial ship and an Australian navy vessel were also en route
to the search area.
Three Chinese naval ships were heading to the
area, along with the icebreaker Snow Dragon, China's state television
reported. The icebreaker was in Perth following a voyage to the
Antarctica in January, but it wasn't clear when the other ships would
get there.
There have been several false leads since the Boeing
777 disappeared March 8 above the Gulf of Thailand en route from Kuala
Lumpur to Beijing, and one analyst cautioned against rising hopes the
objects are from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.
"The chances of it
being debris from the airplane are probably small, and the chances of it
being debris from other shipping are probably large," said Jason
Middleton, an aviation professor at the University of New South Wales in
Sydney.
The hunt has encountered other false leads. Oil slicks
that were seen did not contain jet fuel. A yellow object thought to be
from the plane turned out to be sea trash. Chinese satellite images
showed possible debris, but nothing was found.
Malaysian
authorities have not ruled out any possible explanation for what
happened to the jet, but have said the evidence so far suggests it was
deliberately turned back across Malaysia to the Strait of Malacca, with
its communications systems disabled. They are unsure what happened next.
Police
are considering the possibility of hijacking, sabotage, terrorism or
issues related to the mental health of the pilots or anyone else on
board.
Source : Jakartapost
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» Search plane fails to find Malaysia jet debris
Search plane fails to find Malaysia jet debris
Written By Unknown on Saturday 22 March 2014 | 06:06
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