13/03/2014 09:44
China in new plane 'debris' clue
Satellite images of possible debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 have been released on a Chinese government website, the BBC reported.
The three images show what appear to be large, floating objects in the South China Sea. Previous sightings of possible debris have proved fruitless.
Vietnam and Malaysia have sent planes to the area to investigate.
The Beijing-bound plane took off from Kuala Lumpur late on Friday, vanishing about an hour later.
No distress signal or message was sent from the plane, which had a total of 239 passengers and crew on board.
The images were taken on Sunday, a day after the plane disappeared, but were only released on Wednesday on the website of China's State Administration for Science.
China's civil aviation chief Li Jiaxiang said: "Chinese satellites have found smoke and floating objects... At present we cannot confirm this is related to the missing aircraft."
Vietnam's deputy transport minister said Vietnamese planes had already searched the area but would do so again.
Meanwhile, Malaysia's Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said aircraft had been dispatched to the area to investigate.
Agence France-Presse quoted US officials as saying that US spy satellites had detected no sign of an explosion in the area at the time. The system has detected such heat signatures in the past but none was discovered this time, the officials said.