New Lead Shifts Search For Missing Jet 700 Miles North
The difficult search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 shifted dramatically Friday.
There was word that the search has been moved to an area of the Southern Indian Ocean about 700 miles northeast of the zone that planes and ships have been crisscrossing for more than a week. They've been looking for any sign of the plane and the 239 people who were on board when it disappeared three weeks ago.
According to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, 10 aircraft were sent to the new zone on Friday. The area is about 123,000 square miles in size — roughly the same as the state of New Mexico — and is located more than 1,100 miles west of Perth, Australia.
One of the planes that went to the area on Friday, the AMSA says, spotted some objects. But whether those objects are connected to the missing jet still needs to be established and most likely can't be until ships get to the scene on Saturday.
From Sydney, correspondent Stuart Cohen tells our Newscast Desk that the search zone has shifted because investigators have reexamined radar data and calculated that the jet may have been flying faster than previously thought — and fast enough that it burned through its fuel much sooner than had been estimated.
As the BBC reminds readers:
"Search efforts had until Friday morning focused on an area some 2,500km (1,550 miles) to the southwest of the Australian city of Perth. Using satellite images, several nations have identified objects floating in the sea in that search area, but these have not been located and there is no evidence that they are related to the plane. ...
"Acting Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said that the fact that the search area had moved did not discount the earlier satellite images of possible debris further south.
" 'Because of ocean drift, this new search area could still be consistent with the potential objects identified by various satellite images over the past week,' Mr Hussein said."