Post by Deleted on Mar 13, 2014 9:20:44 GMT 7
China satellite finds 'suspected crash site' in Malaysia jet hunt
Tom HANCOCK
Agence France-Presse
BEIJING March 13, 2014 8:36 am
AFP Photo
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China said its satellites have detected three large floating objects in a suspected crash site near where a missing Malaysian jet lost contact, the latest twist in a hunt which entered its sixth day Thursday.
China’s state science and technology administration 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 Malaysia Airlines flight 370 now encompasses nearly 27,000 nautical miles (over 90,000 square kilometres) -- roughly the size of Portugal -- 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.
But 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 kilometres (12 miles), in 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.
It was not clear whether or when the images had been shared with Malaysian officials coordinating the ever-shifting search effort. Officials could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday morning.