A Thai satellite has detected over 300 objects floating in the south Indian Ocean near the search area for the missing flight MH370.
The discovery was reported only 24 hours after the Malaysian government revealed 122 objects had been seen about 2557 kms from Perth, ranging in length from 1m to 23m.
Anond Snidvongs, director of Thailand’s space technology development agency, said yesterday that the images show “300 objects of various sizes” about 2,700 kilometers south-west of Perth.
The images were taken by the Thaichote satellite on Monday and took two days to process before being relayed to Malaysian authorities on Wednesday.
The objects which range from 2m to 15m in size are about 200kms from the area where the French satellite spotted the 122 objects.
However the air and sea search has failed to locate any major body of debris.
And yesterday the air search was called off because of bad weather for the second time this week.
Captain Mike MacSween, a Royal Canadian Air Force pilot on exchange with the RAAF, piloted the only Australian P3 Orion to make it to the search area before the weather closed in.
Capt MacSween said the plane’s crew searched the area for about two and a half hours, mainly at a height of around 500 feet, but didn’t see anything of note.
“It was definitely not ideal for visual search conditions,” he said.
“The visibility was anywhere between 8km and basically zero.”
He said the plane flew as low as 200ft (61m) in an attempt to keep sight of the surface.
However the sea search continues with the HMAS Success and four Chinese ships – Xue Long, Kunlunshan, Haikou and Qiandaohu – also in the search area. Commanding officer of HMAS Success, Captain Allison Norris, told The West Australian her vessel would continue the search, despite the worsening weather.
She said the crew of the Success was battling a sea state of 3m and it was increasing significantly.
Visibility had been reduced to just 500m.
She said the temperature had also dropped to just 6 degrees.
“The ship’s company is very focused on the task at hand,” she said.
Captain Norris said the Success was searching in a “racetrack” pattern laid out by the AMSA, with a 1000 yard (900m) space between each circuit.
As well as radar, crew the is searching visually using binoculars and night vision devices.
-With agencies
