KUALA LUMPUR: China said its satellites have detected three large floating objects in a suspected crash site near where the missing Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH370 lost contact, the latest twist in a hunt which entered its sixth day Thursday.
China’s State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence said late Wednesday that a Chinese satellite had seen the objects in a “suspected crash sea area” in the South China Sea on March 9, and that the images were being analysed.
The search for MH370 now encompasses nearly 27,000 nautical miles (over 90,000 square kilometres) and involves the navies and air forces of multiple nations.
The hunt originally focused on an area off Vietnam’s South China Sea coast, where the Boeing 777 last made contact Saturday on a journey from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Malaysian authorities later expanded it to the Andaman Sea, north of Indonesia, hundreds of miles away.
The suspected objects detected by the Chinese satellite were found at 105.63 degrees longitude East and 6.7 degrees latitude North, the administration said on its website.
It added that they were spread across an area with a radius of 20 kilometresin sizes that appeared to be 13 x 18 metres, 14 x 19 metres and 24 x 22 metres. Previous sighting of possible debris have proved not to be from the jet. – AFP
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