11.17 The merchant ship is the Norweigan ship Höegh St Petersburg. Its owners have put out a statement:
'Höegh Autoliners can confirm that the vessel Höegh St Petersburg was asked by the Australian Authorities to divert and assist in the search of the missing airplane MH370.
The vessel followed the request and diverted towards the search area and has now reached the destination.'
11.10 Here is a photo of HMS Echo:
11.00 According to the Royal Navy website, HMS Echo is mid-way through an 18-month deployment improve charts used by seafarers throughout the world. The ship's programme has her conducting hydrographic surveying in the Gulf until she is due to return to the UK later this year.
10.57 The Ministry of Defence will be sending survey ship HMS Echo to help the search for MH370.
10.52 Malaysian authorities say Indian Ocean sighting a 'credible lead' as they update families and media on search for missing plane:
10.50 A Norwegian ship has reached the search area in the southern Indian Ocean where debris from the Malaysia plane may have been spotted.
10.24 A man covers his face as he waits for information about passengers onboard the missing Malaysian Airlines flight in a room at the Lido Hotel in Beijing:
10.20 A bit more about some of the planes that have been sent to the site from AP. Two Australian P-3 Orions and a New Zealand Orion were making eight-hour round trips, allowing them only two hours to search before they must return and refuel.
The Orion was once used as a submarine finder but these days is more often used for maritime patrol. They were used to help in Hurricane Katrina and the BP Horizon oil rig disaster. Their sensors can detect objects at or below the water's surface.
The U.S. Navy sent a P-8 Poseidon airplane. It is adapted from a Boeing 737 commercial jet and is designed for long-range anti-submarine warfare as well as reconnaissance.
Australia's Air Force has also sent a C-130 Hercules, a military transport plane. The purpose of the Hercules is to drop marker buoys in the area.
10.17 Rosila Abu Samah and her daughter Kaiyisah Selamat, the mother and sister of flight engineer Mohd Khairul Amri Selamat who was on board hug in Putrajaya:
10.15
JUST IN: Pictures on board a #RAAF Orion sent to debris site. #9News special on flight #MH370 after the footy show. http://ift.tt/1geZMzs
- Nine News Australia (@9NewsAUS) March 20, 2014
10.11 The UK will also send a ship to help the search in remote waters far southwest of Australia.
10.09 The Malaysian authorities say that there will be an inquiry over what happened in the news conference yesterday when families were dragged from the press conference.
10.07 The Australian Maritime Safety Authority says that cloud and rain is limiting visibility.
10.04 A total of 25 aircraft, 18 ships and six helicopters are being deployed to search the region. The Austrailan authorities say that four aircraft are currently in the area where the debris was spotted. They are dropping data buoys in the sea near the suspected aircraft pieces to track the water movement.
09.58 There is confusion over when exactly the satellite footage was taken.
09.57 Hussein makes comparisons with the the French air crash in 2009 because the conditions in the Indian ocean are similar to the conditions in the Atlantic where that plane was found. He says that he has been speaking to the French team who had to deal with the passengers of that crash for two years about 'how to deal with raw emotions'.
09.54 Hussein has expressed 'regret' over the incident yesterday where some relatives of the passengers were dragged from the news conference, ' we do feel for them' he says.
09.51 Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said: 'This 'requires us overnight to verify and corroborate it,' Hishammuddin said, adding that the overall search and rescue effort for Flight 370 would continue in the meantime.
09.46 Malaysia has said that the satellite images are a 'credible lead'.
09.40 If the objects are indeed the plane, it would appear to rule out this theory about technical difficulties which was gaining popularity yesterday.
09.26 Military planes from Australia, the US and New Zealand have been searching in a region over the southern Indian Ocean that was narrowed down from 600,000 square kilometers (232,000 square miles) to 305,000 square kilometers (117,000 square miles).
09.20 Australian authorities announcing a search and rescue team has been sent to check whether objects seen floating in the southern India Ocean are related to the missing Malaysia Airlines jet:
08.46 Our correspondent Jonathan Pearlman in Kuala Lumpur reports on the forthcoming return of Australian planes dispatched to survey the objects spotted off the coast of Perth:
The first Australian plane to survey the debris is due back in at the Pearce air force base north of Perth soon. The Orion aircraft was diverted to the scene after the objects were confirmed to be potential wreckage from MH370. Interestingly, a journalist from Australia's Channel Nine was aboard the flight. Journalists were also aboard a US aircraft that was dispatched to the area and will arrive back in Perth about two hours later.
08.11 Here's another satellite image showing the larger of the two objects reported by Australian authorities.
08.00 It's worth emphasising the heavy note of caution sounded by Australian authorities as they focus their search on two objects sighted on satellite imagery some 2,500 km to the south west of Perth. While large - one of the objects is 24 metres in length and the other 5 metres - the Australian Maritime Safety Authority has stressed that they could be seaborne debris. They lie along a shipping route where containers can fall off cargo vessels, although the bigger object is longer than a container.
John Young, manager of AMSA's emergency response division, told this morning's news conference in Canberra: 'This is a lead, it's probably the best lead we have right now,' Young said. He cautioned that the objects could be seaborne debris along a shipping route where containers can fall off cargo vessels, although the larger object is longer than a container.
He said that satellite images 'do not always turn out to be related to the search even if they look good, so we will hold our views on that until they are sighted close-up.'
Mr Young said visibility was poor and may hamper efforts to find the objects. He said they 'are relatively indistinct on the imagery ... but those who are experts indicate they are credible sightings. The indication to me is of objects that are a reasonable size and probably awash with water, moving up and down over the surface.'
Four planes have been dispatched to search the area and commercial satellites have been redirected in the hope of getting higher resolution images of the objects.
07.50 We are hearing that the relatives of the missing Chinese passengers are expected to be briefed by Malaysia Airlines on the Australian rescue effort at 8.30pm local time in Beijing - that's 3.30pm GMT.
07.30 Good morning and welcome to today's live coverage of the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. Overnight, the search has zeroed in on an area in the southern Indian Ocean some 2,500 km off the coast of Perth, after the Australian government announced that two objects possibly related to the plane have been spotted on satellite imagery.
In the first bit of significant news in the search for the plane for some days, Australia's prime minister Tony Abbott has told Parliament in Canberra that a Royal Australian Airforce Orion has been diverted to the area to attempt to locate the objects. The Orion is expected to arrive in the area on Thursday afternoon. Three additional aircraft are expected to follow for a more intensive search.
The families of Chinese passengers have gathered at the Lido hotel in Beijing waiting for news as Malaysia Airlines says it will not move them unless the objects are confirmed to be from the missing flight.
They insist their loved ones could still be alive. Wen Wancheng refused to accept that the announcement from Australia could mean he had lost his son.
'My son is still alive. My son is still alive,' said the 63-year-old from Shandong province. 'I don't believe the news.'
Here are images of the search area distributed by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), as well as the agency's full written statement.
Posted by Unknown on Thursday, March 20, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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