The Slatest

Thai Satellite Spots Roughly 300 Objects of Interest In MH370 Search Zone

Flying Officer Marc Smith, Co-Pilot of an RAAF AP-3C Orion steers the plane on final approach to Pearce Airbase in Bullsbrook, 35 kms north of Perth on March 24, 2014, after a search operation for the missing Malaysia Airways Flight MH370 over the Indian Ocean

Photo by Richard Wainwright/AFP/Getty Images

Bad weather and its accompanying high winds and poor visibility have slowed the search in a remote patch of the southern Indian Ocean for debris from Flight 370, but satellite data continues to point to that location as the best bet for wreckage. The latest images come by way of Thailand and Japan, via Reuters:

The latest possible sightings of wreckage from Flight MH370, which went missing 19 days ago, were captured by Thai and Japanese satellites in roughly the same remote expanse of sea as earlier images reported by France, Australia and China.

“We detected floating objects, perhaps more than 300,” Anond Snidvongs, the head of Thailand’s space technology development agency, told Reuters. “We have never said that the pieces are part of MH370 but have so far identified them only as floating objects.”

A Japanese satellite also captured images of 10 objects which could be part of the plane, Kyodo news agency quoted the government as saying on Thursday.

The less-than-ideal weather conditions forced an international team of 11 military and civilian aircraft to turn around earlier today several hundred miles short of the search area. Ships, meanwhile, continue to sweep the area—although they weren’t expected to have much luck thanks to the wind and waves.

If the debris does turn out to be from the missing jetliner, there’s still a long way to go. The objects would have spent the past two-plus weeks drifting at sea, so finding the exact location of where the plane went down will take some more work. Still, it would be a start, and would also provide some needed closure for the families and friends of the passengers and crew who went missing with the plane on March 8.

Read the rest of Slate’s coverage of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

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