China's State Administration of Science has shown three satellite images taken on Sunday - a day after the plane went missing - which they claim could be wreckage. All the latest here
Latest
04.55 The Wall Street Journal are running an interesting story today suggesting the plane may have continued flying for around four more hours beyond its last known position
04.55 The Wall Street Journal are running an interesting story today suggesting the plane may have continued flying for around four more hours beyond its last known position
US investigators and national security officials base that belief on what the paper reports as "data automatically downloaded and sent to the ground from the Boeing 777's engines as part of a routine maintenance and monitoring program."
The focus overnight has been on the satellite images from Sunday, but released yesterday by the Chinese, showing three pieces of unidentified debris positioned in line with what might be expected from the planned route, but certainly not four hours beyond where it was when last in contact.
Vietnamese officials previously said the area had already been "searched thoroughly" in recent days.
04.55 The Wall Street Journal are running an interesting story today suggesting the plane may have continued flying for around four more hours beyond its last known position
US investigators and national security officials base that belief on what the paper reports as "data automatically downloaded and sent to the ground from the Boeing 777's engines as part of a routine maintenance and monitoring program."
The focus overnight has been on the satellite images from Sunday, but released yesterday by the Chinese, showing three pieces of unidentified debris positioned in line with what might be expected from the planned route, but certainly not four hours beyond where it was when last in contact.
04.30 A search by two Vietnamese aircraft responding to the information provided by a Chinese satellite has so far failed to locate objects suspected of being wreckage from a missing Malaysian airliner, according to a Reuters journalist who is on board one of those planes.
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 today.
Vietnamese and Malaysian planes were scanning waters where a Chinese government agency website said a satellite had photographed three "suspicious floating objects" on Sunday.
03.40 Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has said as long as there remains a “glimmer of hope” China will not stop the search for the missing plane and called for the “relevant party” to step up coordination.
Quote This is an international and large-scale search operation involving many countries. The Chinese government has asked the relevant party to enhance coordination, investigate the cause, locate the missing plane as quickly as possible and properly handle all related matters,” Li told reporters.
The so-far fruitless search for the plane entered its sixth day on Thursday, and China has dispatched multiple aircraft, ships and satellite in the multinational search mission.
02.50 Malaysia, too, has now dispatched an aircraft to investigate the site where Chinese satellites photographed the "suspected floating objects", near an area where several nations have been hunting for wreckage from a missing passenger plane.
Quote Bombardier has already been dispatched to investigate alleged claims of debris being found by Chinese satellite imagery," Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said on his Twitter feed, on the sixth day of the search for Malaysia Airlines flight 370 and the 239 people on board.
"Bombardier" apparently refers to the Canadian-made plane sent by Malaysia to the site.
02.45 Vietnam has already searched the area where Chinese satellites showed objects that could be debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines jet, but a plane has been sent to check the area again, Vietnamese military officials have said.
Quote We are aware and we sent planes to cover that area over the past three days,” Deputy Transport Minister Pham Quy Tieu told the Reuters news agency. “Today a (military) plane will search the area again.”
Another military official said Vietnam was waiting to see photographs taken by a Chinese satellite on Sunday in waters northeast of Kuala Lumpur and south of Vietnam in order to identify the exact location for further inspection.
• Further to the previous post, the satellite story is now up on Xinhua English, but still not on Xinhua Chinese yet
02.30 There is still no certainty at all that the satellite pictures of three pieces of debris are in fact elements of the missing plane, even if they are the strongest lead yet in a confusing and frustrating search now six days old.
The images released by China come from last Sunday, and Xinhua, the state news agency, has not put the story up on the front of either its Chinese or English websites, reports Malcolm Moore from Beijing. Is China just adding to the false leads/confusion?
The Chinese public have also been deeply unimpressed by the fact a Malaysian shaman has been reportedly brought in for the disaster.
01.50 China’s civil aviation chief has said there is no definite proof that floating objects in the South China Sea seen by satellite images were connected to a missing Malaysia Airlines aircraft.
Quote Chinese satellites have found smoke and floating objects ... At present we cannot confirm this is related to the missing aircraft,” Li Jiaxiang told reporters on the sidelines of China’s annual meeting of parliament.
He added that there was also no evidence the Malaysian military was concealing information about the missing flight.
01.30 An update from Malcolm Moore in Beijing.
The Americans don't seem to be taking the Chinese satellite pictures seriously, he reports, they are not changing their search pattern based on the information.
01.15 Malaysia’s civil aviation chief, Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, has said Malaysia had not been officially informed by China about the satellite images, which he said he was learning about from the news. He said if Beijing informs them of the coordinates, Malaysia will dispatch vessels and planes immediately.
Quote If we get confirmation, we will send something,” he told the Associate Press news agency. Until then, he urged caution. “There have been lots of reports of suspected debris.”
23.30 An update on the American transport officials' warning of a potential weak spot in Boeing 777s which could lead to the "loss of structural integrity of the aircraft" that came four months before the disappearance of Malaysia airlines Flight MH370, from US correspondent David Millward.
Quote In a belated statement, Boeing said that the antenna on the Malaysia airline Boeing 777 differed from that covered in the air directive. It remains unclear how many of the current air directives issued by the FAA in Washington, many of which are routine, applied to the stricken aircraft.
22.55 More detail from our Los Angeles correspondent Nick Allen on reaction to the satellite images that have identified what appear to be three pieces of debris floating in an area that fits with the missing flight MH370's intended path, between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing.
Peter Goelz, former director of the US National Transportation Safety Board, told CNN:
Quote They have got to get vessels and aircraft there as quickly as humanly possible to find out where they have drifted to and get eyes on."
On why China had delayed three days before releasing the images, Mr Goelz said:
Quote It does not surprise me that China would be reluctant to come forward. They might not want to reveal what kind of satellite capability they have in the region."
22.30 There is more confusion concerning why the images released by the Chinese have not been acted on sooner - and even if the Malaysians are reacting now. They were first tweeted several hours ago (note the time stamp on the below tweet from CCTV - the Chinese branch of an English language broadcaster - that contained one of the images).
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