MH370: Malaysian plane search resumes at first light
Video Link:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-26677056
Richard Westcott reports on the trail of the missing plane MH370: ''The agonising wait for the relatives goes on''
An
international search of the southern Indian Ocean has resumed for a
second day as authorities try to locate a missing Malaysian airliner.
Satellite images released on Thursday showed objects possibly related to the aircraft in the southern Indian Ocean.
However, authorities said bad weather had hampered their search efforts, which stopped at nightfall.
Four military planes, including two Orions belonging to the Royal Australian Air Force, are taking part in the search, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (Amsa) said in a statement.
The aircraft will be joined by merchant ships to search a 23,000 kilometre area, about 2500 kilometres south-west of Perth, said Amsa.
The Kuala Lumpur-Beijing plane disappeared on 8 March.
It first lost contact with air traffic controllers and then disappeared from radar.
'Extremely bad'
Four reconnaissance aircraft and six merchant vessels had searched the vast area in the southern Indian Ocean on Thursday without success.
Two Australian Orion aircraft searching the area on Thursday were joined later by aircraft from the US and New Zealand.
The captain of the first Australian air force AP-3C Orion plane to return from the search area described the weather conditions as "extremely bad" with rough seas and high winds.
Australian authorities said one of the objects was 24m in size
The objects were seen on satellite images and assessed by experts
The St Petersburg, a Norwegian merchant ship, was the first vessel to reach the area
Earlier on Thursday, Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein described the possible sighting of debris on satellite images taken on 16 March as a "credible lead".
The largest object appeared to be 24m (78ft) in size, the Australian authorities said.
A number of sightings of possible debris have been investigated since the plane went missing but so far none have proved to be linked.
Amsa said ships and planes were heading south-west of Perth to try to find the objects
Investigators had identified two corridors of territory - one to the north and one to the south - spanning the possible positions of the plane about seven hours after take-off.
This was based on its last faint signal to a satellite - an hourly "handshake" broadcast even when the main communication systems are switched off.
Malaysia says search efforts are continuing in both corridors, involving a total of 18 ships, 29 aircraft and six ship-borne helicopters.
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