Thai satellite images have shown 300 floating objects in the
southern Indian Ocean during a search for the missing Malaysian
airliner, an official said Thursday.
The objects, ranging from two
to 15 metres (6.5 to 50 feet) in size, were scattered over an area
about 2,700 kilometres (1,680 miles) southwest of Perth, according to
the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency.
"But
we cannot -- dare not -- confirm they are debris from the plane," the
agency's executive director, Anond Snidvongs, told AFP.
He said the information had been given to Malaysia.
The
pictures were taken by Thailand's only earth observation satellite on
Monday but needed several days to process, Anond added.
He said
the objects were spotted about 200 kilometres away from an area where
French satellite images earlier showed potential objects in the search
for the Boeing 777 which vanished on March 8 with 239 people aboard.
Thailand
faced criticism after announcing more than a week after the jet's
disappearance that its radar had picked up an "unknown aircraft" minutes
after flight MH370 last transmitted its location.
The Thai air force said it did not report the findings earlier as the plane was not considered a threat.
The
Malaysia Airlines plane is presumed to have crashed in the Indian Ocean
after mysteriously diverting from its Kuala Lumpur-Beijing path and
apparently flying for hours in the opposite direction.
Thunderstorms and gale-force winds grounded the international air search for wreckage on Thursday.
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