UPDATES OF MISSING MALYSIA AIRLINE. MALYSIA: FILES DELETED IN FLIGHT SIMULATOR
KUALA
LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Four military search planes were dispatched
Thursday to try to determine whether two large objects bobbing in a
remote part of the Indian Ocean were part of a possible debris field of
the missing Malaysia Airlines flight.
One of
the objects spotted by satellite imagery had a dimension of 25 meters
(82 feet) and the other one was smaller. There could be other objects in
waters nearby in the area that's a four-hour flight from Australia's
southwestern coast, said John Young, manager of Australian Maritime
Safety Authority's emergency response division.
"This
is a lead, it's probably the best lead we have right now," said Young,
while cautioning that the objects could also be seaborne debris along a
key shipping route where containers periodically fall off cargo vessels.
Young
told a news conference in Canberra, Australia's capital, that planes had
been sent to the area about 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles) southwest of
Perth to check on the objects. He said that satellite images "do not
always turn out to be related to the search even if they look good, so
we will hold our views on that until they are sighted close-up."
Australian
Prime Minister Tony Abbott had earlier told Parliament about the
debris, and said Orion search aircraft were expected to arrive in the
area Thursday afternoon.
Young
said visibility was poor and may hamper efforts to find the objects. He
said they "are relatively indistinct on the imagery ... but those who
are experts indicate they are credible sightings. The indication to me
is of objects that are a reasonable size and probably awash with water,
moving up and down over the surface."
Military
planes from Australia, the U.S. and New Zealand have been covering a
search region over the southern Indian Ocean that was narrowed down from
600,000 square kilometers (232,000 square miles) to 305,000 square
kilometers (117,000 square miles).
The hunt for the Boeing 777 has been punctuated by several false leads since it disappeared March 8 above the Gulf of Thailand.
Oil
slicks that were spotted did not contain jet fuel. A yellow object
thought to be from the plane turned out to be a piece of sea trash.
Chinese satellite images showed possible plane debris, but nothing was
found.
But
this is the first time that possible objects have been spotted since the
search area was massively expanded into two corridors, one stretching
from northern Thailand into Central Asia and the other from the Strait
of Malacca down to southern reaches of the Indian Ocean.
Abbott
said he spoke to the prime minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak, about the
latest developments. Australia's envoy to Malaysia, Rod Smith, joined a
meeting of senior Malaysia search officials at a Kuala Lumpur hotel
after Abbott's announcement. Smith did not respond to reporters'
questions.
"As
I've been doing from day one, I've followed every single lead. And this
time, I hope it is a positive development," Malaysian Defense Minister
Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters.
The
FBI has also joined forces with Malaysian authorities in analyzing
deleted data on a flight simulator belonging to the pilot of the missing
jet.
Files
containing records of flight simulations were deleted Feb. 3 from the
device found in the home of the pilot, Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah,
Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu said.
It was
not clear whether investigators thought that deleting the files was
unusual. They might hold hints of unusual flight paths that could help
explain where the missing plane went, or the files could have been
deleted simply to clear memory for other material.
Hishammuddin
told a news conference Wednesday that Zaharie is considered innocent
until proven guilty. He said members of the pilot's family are
cooperating in the investigation.
Zaharie was known to some within the online world of flight simulation enthusiasts.
A U.S.
official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the official was
not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation by name, said the
FBI has been asked to analyze the deleted simulator files.
U.S.
Attorney General Eric Holder said in Washington that the FBI was working
with Malaysian authorities. "At this point, I don't think we have any
theories," he said.
Flight
370 disappeared March 8 on a night flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Malaysian authorities have not ruled out any possible explanation, but
have said the evidence so far suggests the flight was deliberately
turned back across Malaysia to the Strait of Malacca, with its
communications systems disabled. They are unsure what happened next.
Investigators
have identified two giant arcs of territory spanning the possible
positions of the plane about 7½ hours after takeoff, based on its last
faint signal to a satellite — an hourly "handshake" signal that
continues even when communications are switched off. The arcs stretch up
as far as Kazakhstan in central Asia and down deep into the southern
Indian Ocean.
Police
are considering the possibility of hijacking, sabotage, terrorism or
issues related to the mental health of the pilots or anyone else on
board, and have asked for background checks from abroad on all foreign
passengers.
___
Gelineau reported from Sydney, Australia. Associated Press writer Rod McGuirk in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.
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