China ship searches for Malaysia aircraft debris

Chinese ship Haixun 01 has started searching in an effort to relocate floating objects in the new Indian Ocean search area for the Malaysia Airlines passenger plane.

According to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), the attempt began on Saturday, a day after planes attached to the search operation detected “multiple objects” floating in the water, which could be possible debris from the missing passenger plane.

China’s official state news agency Xinhua has said that the Chinese ship is joined by a navy vessel Jinggangshan, which carries two helicopters.

AMSA also expects six ships to be in place by the end of Saturday, including the Australian navy’s HMAS Success and a total of five Chinese vessels since they search an area which is approximately the size of Norway.

On Friday, the focus of the search moved to a new zone because of fresh data showing that the Malaysian jet was flying faster than first thought before it vanished three weeks ago.

The search is being carried out far off Western Australia and about 1,100 kilometers (685 miles) northeast of where initial efforts were concentrated and AMSA has 11 military aircraft from six countries at its service for the search operation.

“We are trying to find small bits of wreckage in a vast ocean. While we are throwing everything we have at it, the task goes on,” said Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

“We should not underestimate the difficulty of this work. It is an extraordinarily remote location.”

It is said that the items spotted could not be verified as belonging to the missing plane until they are physically examined.

The Boeing 777, carrying nearly 240 people, disappeared on route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8.