The scouring for the crashed Malaysian jet intensified on Saturday with a Chinese aircraft making fresh sightings of objects in the Indian Ocean, including two bearing colours of the missing plane, even as the multination search entered its fourth week without success.
The search for the crashed Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 dramatically shifted 1,100 km further northeast in the southern Indian Ocean on Friday. A Chinese aircraft on Saturday spotted three unidentified floating objects coloured white, red and orange, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported. White and red were among the colours on the outside of the missing Boeing 777.
“Search activities for Saturday have concluded. Approximately 252,000 square kilometres were searched. Aircraft in the search area have continued to report sightings of objects similar to those reported on Friday,” the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said. “A Chinese People’s liberation Army Air Force Ilyushin Il-76 reported sighting three objects in the search area. A Royal Australian Air Force P3 Orion also reported sighting multiple objects in a different part of the search area,” AMSA, that is coordinating the search operations, said.
It said the objects sighted by aircraft cannot be verified or discounted as being from Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 until they are relocated and recovered by ships. Australian ship HMAS Success, the Chinese Maritime Safety Administration ship Haixun 01, China Rescue and Salvage Bureau ship Nan Hai Jiu and the Chinese Navy ship Jinggang Shan arrived in the search area and a further five ships were expected to arrive on Sunday. The Haixun 01 and HMAS Success reported they have retrieved a number of objects from the ocean but so far no objects confirmed to be related to the plane have been recovered.