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'Hard objects' found in MH370 search

Investigators searching for the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 have discovered ‘hard objects’ that seem inconsistent with their surroundings.

The most expensive search in aviation history as so far failed to spot any wreckage from the airliner, but experts may have discovered its location after studying radar and satellite data.

Martin Dolan of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said that new surveys of the seabeds has revealed some interesting findings, including the hard objects, although there are no guarantees that this will turn out to be plane wreckage.

Dolan, who is conducting the search, is also confident a smaller search area will be announced soon.


The aircraft disappeared from radar screens on March 8 with 239 passengers and crew on board after it departed Kuala Lumpar in Malaysia to Beijing in China.

Over the past six months, international experts searched for the aircraft using a range of data in a bid to narrow down the crash site.

Dolan also hopes to be able to announce a smaller search area shortly based on satellite data and the use of flight simulators.

He said new seabed surveys have also produced some interesting findings including hard objects that seem inconsistent with their surroundings, although there is no guarantee that this is the aircraft.

Speaking to The Times, Dolan said: 'There is nothing that has screamed out and said "I look like an aircraft".

'It's still a hell of an area. The area is horribly, horribly complicated.'

A Vietnamese airman keeps look out for missing MH370 wreckage. Source: AP Photo
A Vietnamese airman keeps look out for missing MH370 wreckage. Source: AP Photo

- Phone call traced -

Last week a new clue to the plane's possible location emerged.

The fresh information suggested the jet "may have turned south" earlier than thought, Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said.

Experts have used technical data to finalise its most likely resting place deep under the Indian Ocean and are preparing for a more intense underwater search.

It will focus on a dauntingly vast stretch of ocean measuring 60,000 square kilometres.

Australian forces prepare to deploy an autonomous underwater vehicle in the search of the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Source: AP Photo
Australian forces prepare to deploy an autonomous underwater vehicle in the search of the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Source: AP Photo

Truss said that during efforts to map MH370's location when Malaysia Airlines tried to contact the jet, it was "suggested to us that the aircraft may have turned south a little earlier than we had previously expected".

"After MH370 disappeared from the radar, Malaysia Airlines ground staff sought to make contact using a satellite phone. That was unsuccessful," he said.

"But the detailed research that's being done now has been able to... trace that phone call and help position the aircraft and the direction it was travelling."

The minister said investigators still believed MH370 was somewhere on the search zone's seventh arc, where it emitted a final satellite "handshake".

"It remains on the seventh arc -- that is, there is a very, very strong view that this aircraft will be resting on the seventh arc," he said.

Morning news break – September 5