Update | MH370 search looks for debris breakthrough in new area
Despite having access to considerable assets, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the search teams faced a formidable task given the distances involved
Searchers scouring the Indian Ocean for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 were hoping on Saturday to salvage debris for the first time which could finally confirm whether the jet plunged into the sea.
But despite having access to considerable assets, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the search teams faced a formidable task given the distances involved.
“We should not underestimate the difficulty of this work, it is an extraordinarily remote location,” he told reporters on Saturday.
“We are trying to find small bits of wreckage in a vast ocean. While we’re throwing everything we have at it, the task goes on.”
Planes attached to the multinational operation spotted “multiple objects” floating in the water on Friday after the focus of the search moved to a new area on the strength of fresh data indicating the plane was flying faster than first thought before it disappeared on March 8.
Authorities stressed that the items sighted could not be verified as coming from MH370 until they were physically examined and ships from China and Australia were steaming to the search zone in an effort to locate them.
