Missing jet: Malaysia receives French satellite images

Malaysia said it received Monday morning a set of French satellite images "captured by cameras" Sunday that might be related to the missing Malaysian airliner.

The images have been relayed to Australia's Rescue Coordination Centre as it is leading the search in the particular area, Malaysia's acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told a press conference. He also said that French satellites captured some potential objects Friday in the vicinity of the southern corridor in the Indian Ocean, Xinhua reported. 

Malaysian authorities received the relevant images Saturday and transferred them to Australia Sunday, he added. Satellite data, he said, is one of the four tools Malaysian authorities are using to narrow the search area, along with surveillance radar data, increasing surface and air assets and technical experts.  Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vanished mysteriously about an hour after taking off from Kuala lumpur March 8.

The Boeing 777-200ER was initially presumed to have crashed off the Vietnamese coast in the South China Sea. The plane was scheduled to land in Beijing at 6.30 a.m. the same day. The 227 passengers on board included five Indians, 154 Chinese and 38 Malaysians. Contact with the plane was lost along with its radar signal at 1.40 a.m. when it was flying over the air traffic control area of Ho Chi Minh City.