The Republik of China releases satellite images of possible Malaysia Airlines crash site
The Republik of China military agency yesterday released satellite imagery
showing large debris floating in the South China Sea along the flight
path of
the missing Malaysia Airlines plane, according to news agencies in Beijing.
The images were captured on Sunday,
The Associated Press quoted New China News Agency
as reporting. The Chinese military reportedly described the site as a
"suspected crash area" based on the location and size of the three
debris pieces estimated to be over 70 feet in length and width. The
debris are floating between the Malaysian peninsula and Vietnam.
The news agency didn't specify why Beijing hadn't reported the images
on Sunday, although media believe China's armed forces may have been
reluctant in straight away revealing technological capabilities to other
nations involved in the search.
Since the plane's disappearance early Saturday several purported debris sightings, including
debris that was believed to be the door of the missing jet, a
"yellow object" suspected to be a life raft deployed from the aircraft and
oil slicks spotted in the Gulf of Thailand, have proved to be unrelated MH370.
Meanwhile, Malaysia's air force chief Rodzali Daud
denies making a statement that the missing plane was tracked by military radar
off course to a location off the Strait of Malacca but says that the navy "has not ruled out the possibility of an air turn back on a reciprocal heading".
On Tuesday, Daud was quoted as saying that the plane was last
detected at 2:40 a.m. near Pulau Perak, an island in the Malacca Strait.
Xinhua
reports that China is requesting that Malaysia verify the rumors that
MH370 changed its scheduled course before suddenly losing contact.
UPDATE (11:46 a.m.): Vietnamese authorities said that jets already searched the area where the debris was spotted but will check again. Via
The Guardian:
One military official has told Reuters a plane has been sent to the region already.
“We are aware and we sent planes to cover that area over the past three
days,” deputy transport minister Pham Quy Tieu told Reuters.
“Today a (military) plane will search the area again.”
However another military official said they are waiting to view the photographs to identity the exact area themselves.
UPDATE: (12:30 p.m.): Via
Reuters: Vietnamese aircraft fail to locate debris spotted in satellite images:
A
search by two Vietnamese aircraft responding to information provided by
a Chinese satellite has failed to locate objects suspected of being
wreckage from a missing Malaysian airliner, a Reuters journalist on
board a search plane said on Thursday.
Aircraft repeatedly
circled the area over the South China Sea but were unable to detect any
objects, said the journalist, who flew aboard a Antonov 26 cargo plane
for three hours.
