Suspect debris of the missing Malaysian jet could have shifted

Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia on Thursday said that the Australian satellite picking up images of possible wrecage of the missing jet MH370 was a ‘credible lead’.

Malaysian transport Hishammuddin Hussein said the information on the objects received from Australia had been “corroborated to a certain extent” by other satellites, making it more credible than previous leads.

The larger of the objects measured up to 24 metres (79 ft), long and appeared to be floating in water several thousand metres deep, Australian officials said. The second object was about five metres (16 feet) long.

“It’s credible enough to divert the research to this area on the basis it provides a promising lead to what might be wreckage from the debris field,” Royal Australian Air Force Air Commodore John McGarry said.

The satellite images, provided by US company DigitalGlobe, were taken on March 16, meaning that the possible debris could by now have drifted far from the original site.

Australian officials said an aircraft had dropped a series of marker buoys in the area, which will provide information about currents to assist in calculating the latest location. China’s icebreaker for Antarctic research, Xue-long, or Snow Dragon, will set off from Perth to search the area, Chinese state news agency Xinhua cited maritime authorities as saying. About two-thirds of the 227 passengers on Flight MH370 were Chinese nationals.

Investigators believe that someone with detailed knowledge of both the Boeing 777-200ER and commercial aviation navigation switched off the plane's communications systems before diverting it thousands of miles off its scheduled course. Exhaustive background checks of the passengers and crew aboard the missing jetliner have yielded barely anything that might explain what was the motive behind the move.

The discovery of the floating objects was revealed by Austrilan Prime Minister Abbott.