News coming in about the missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 has largely been speculation and theories for the past couple days. Okay, the past two weeks, whatever. But today comes news that a Chinese satellite may have spotted some wreckage. Via NY Times:
A Chinese satellite has spotted an object in the southern Indian Ocean in an area that is the focus of a multinational effort to find the Malaysia Airlines airliner that disappeared on March 8, the Chinese authorities said Saturday.
The object is about is about 74 feet by 43 feet (22.5 meters by 13 meters), China’s State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense said on its website. It was spotted on Tuesday about 75 miles, or 120 kilometers, to the south and west of objects seen two days earlier by a commercial satellite. Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein of Malaysia told reporters that the Chinese “will be sending ships to verify.” The object is in the area of one of two possible routes that investigators say they think Flight 370 took.
As you can see in the photo, you can’t see anything because the camera on the Chinese satellite must be from the first camera phone ever made. Suffice to say, we don’t know what that is, but it’s pretty big. The last time Chinese satellites told us that it possibly found the plane, it didn’t. So take all of this as another piece of the story that everyone will run with ALL DAY.
An interesting thing happened when we first learned about this. Malaysian Acting Minister of Transportation Hismahuddin Hussein was giving his daily update about the missing flight when he was handed a note.
That’s pretty neat. All we know now is that ships and planes are headed to the scene to find out if this is the plane or not. I want to know how much this is costing all of countries involved in the search. It has to be a buttload.
The Gulfstream G5 jet, a Bombardier Global Express jet and a Royal Australian Air Force P3 Orion have been flying out from the Royal Australian Air Force base, Pearce, 22 miles north of Perth, said Sam Cardwell, a spokesman for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority. Another three aircraft left for the search area later on Saturday.
A total of seven aircraft have become involved in the search: three Royal Australian Air Force P-3 Orion planes, a New Zealand P-3 Orion, a United States Navy Poseidon P-8 surveillance plane and the two commercial aircraft. At least two merchant ships are also in the area, and the Australian Navy’s Success was expected to arrive late Saturday afternoon, according to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, which is based in Canberra, the national capital.
Also on Saturday, two Chinese Il-76 Ilyushin transport aircraft left an air base near the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, en route to Australia to take part in the search, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Britain is dispatching a naval hydrographic survey ship, the Echo, and Japan is also sending two P-3 Orion aircraft.
I hope they find it and put an end to all the families’ pain of not knowing. As much as we want to believe some crazy thing happened like the plane landing somewhere or that a Black Hole swallowed it, that’s probably not the case.