بقايا الطائرة الماليزية مقابل بيرث

A Chinese ship has arrived at the new search area to relocate objects thought to be part of the missing Malaysia Airlines plane. Another five ships, including Australia’s HMAS Success, are enroute and expected to arrive in the search zone later today.

The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration ship Haixun 01 has been on scene for relocating objects from first light.

A Royal New Zealand Air Force Orion spotted 11 white rectangular objects in the Indian Ocean on Friday.

An object floating in the water was seen on a computer screen on board a Royal New Zealand Air Force plane searching for wreckage from Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.
The cluster of objects is sitting just below the surface about 1600 kilometres west of Perth, New Zealand Air Vice-Marshal Kevin Short told media on Saturday.

“It’s hard to identify because all you’re seeing is this one-metre rectangular piece of material.”

The 11 objects were within five metres of each other and there were objects up to a couple of hundred miles away as well, he said.

A marker flare is deployed into the Indian Ocean from a Royal New Zealand Air Force plane searching for plane debris off the west coast of Australia.
“There seems to be patches of these objects and that’s not unexpected, looking at how long the aircraft’s been missing.

“If they’re from that aircraft it’s not unusual to have them separated by hundreds of miles.”

The plane carrying 239 people, including six Australians and two New Zealanders, disappeared on March 8.

The objects had been marked with a sonar buoy and four ships would be in the area on Saturday morning to retrieve them, Air Vice-Marshal Short said.

The objects would be photographed, with the images sent to investigators, then transported to Perth for further investigation, he said.

Earlier on Friday, the search area was shifted 1000 kilometres north-east after international air crash investigators had their ”most credible lead” yet.

The new area was calculated after analysis of radar data indicated the aircraft was travelling faster than previously thought, meaning it would have used its fuel more quickly and travelled less distance.

At 319,000 square kilometres, the new search area revealed on Friday is massive, almost the same size as the Malaysian land mass and roughly 50 per cent larger than Victoria.

Five aircraft also spotted coloured objects in the new search area on Friday.

Photographs of the objects were taken and were to be assessed overnight, while a Chinese ship in the new search area was directed towards the debris.

Australian Maritime Safety Authority emergency response manager John Young said all search planes and ships had been moved to the new zone.

“We have moved on from those search areas to the newest credible lead.”

Any wreckage found would be handed over to Malaysian authorities.

The findings came with a warning from Malaysia Airlines of the effect that speculation about the flight’s fate could have on the families.

“Whilst we understand that there will inevitably be speculation during this period, we do ask people to bear in mind the effect this has on the families of all those on board,” the airline’s group chief executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said.

“Their anguish and distress increases with each passing day, with each fresh rumour, and with each false or misleading report.”

Mr Yahya said preparations were underway for family members of passengers and crew to be taken to Perth, should physical wreckage be found.

Source: smh