Jet search cut short; new satellite spots objects

This graphic released by the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office of Japan on Thursday, March 27, 2014 shows a point, bottom center, where about 10 objects that might be debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 were located by the Cabinet Satellite Intelligence Center's Information Gathering Satellitein the water about 1,560 miles southwest of Perth, Australia. The office said the objects spotted early Wednesday morning, March 26, are square with the largest measuring about 13 feet by 26 feet. The red line at left is the southern route.
This graphic released by the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office of Japan on Thursday, March 27, 2014 shows a point, bottom center, where about 10 objects that might be debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 were located by the Cabinet Satellite Intelligence Center's Information Gathering Satellitein the water about 1,560 miles southwest of Perth, Australia. The office said the objects spotted early Wednesday morning, March 26, are square with the largest measuring about 13 feet by 26 feet. The red line at left is the southern route.

PERTH, Australia — Hints about the lost Malaysian jetliner piled up Thursday, but there was precious little chance to track them down. Bad weather cut short the air and sea hunt for the aircraft as satellite data revealed hundreds more objects that might be wreckage.

Not one piece of debris has been recovered from the plane that went down in the southern Indian Ocean on March 8. For relatives of the 239 people aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, it was yet another agonizing day of waiting.

"Until something is picked up and analyzed to make sure it's from MH370 we can't believe it, but without anything found it's just clues," Steve Wang, whose 57-year-old mother was aboard the flight, said in Beijing. "Without that, it's useless."

A Thai satellite spotted about 300 objects, ranging from 6 feet to 53 feet long, about 1,675 miles southwest of Perth, said Anond Snidvongs, director of Thailand's space technology development agency. He said the images, taken Monday by the Thaichote satellite, took two days to process and were relayed to Malaysian authorities on Wednesday.

The objects were about 125 miles southwest of the area where a French satellite on Sunday spotted 122 objects. It's unknown whether the two satellites detected the same objects; currents in the ocean can run about 2.2 mph and wind also could move material.

Read tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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