Black box detector to join Malaysian jet search

PERTH, Australia (AP):

A WARSHIP with an aircraft black box detector was set to depart Australia yesterday to join the search for the missing Malaysian jetliner, a day after ships plucked objects from the Indian Ocean to determine whether they were related to the missing plane.

None was confirmed to be from the plane, leaving searchers with no sign of the jet more than three weeks after it disappeared.

Twenty-nine Chinese family members, seeking answers from Malaysia's government as to what happened to their loved ones, arrived in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, said Malaysia Airlines commercial director Hugh Dunleavy. Two-thirds of the 227 passengers aboard Flight 370 were Chinese, and their relatives have expressed deep frustration with Malaysian authorities since the plane went missing.

equipped

It will still take three to four days for the Australian navy ship, the Ocean Shield, to reach the search zone - an area roughly the size of Poland about 1,850 kilometres (1,150 miles) to the west of Australia.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority, which oversees the search, said the ship will be equipped with a black box detector - the US Navy's Towed Pinger Locator - and an unmanned underwater vehicle, as well as other acoustic detection equipment.

Ships from China and Australia on Saturday scooped up items described only as "objects from the ocean," but none was "confirmed to be related" to Flight 370, AMSA said.

In Sydney, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott described the latest search as positive because objects are now being examined.

"We haven't yet been able to ascertain what those objects are, but nevertheless, for the first time yesterday objects have been recovered from the ocean," he said.

A Chinese Ilyushin IL-76 plane spotted three floating objects, including two bearing colours of the missing jet, China's official Xinhua News Agency said, a day after several planes and ships combing the newly targeted area, which is closer to Australia than a previous search zone, saw several other objects.

The three objects spotted by the Chinese plane were white, red and orange, the Xinhua report said. The missing Boeing 777's exterior was red, white, blue and grey.

Investigators have been puzzled over what happened to Flight 370, which disappeared March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, with speculation ranging from equipment failure and a botched hijacking to terrorism or an act by one of the pilots.