Ocean search finds just sea trash

Flotsam in shipping lane hampers Malaysian plane hunt

CORRECTS TO UNDERWATER SEARCH-SURVEYING VEHICLE - An underwater search-surveying vehicle sits on the wharf ready to be fitted to the defense ship Ocean Shield to aid in her roll in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in Perth, Australia, Sunday, March 30, 2014. The Australian warship with an aircraft black box detector was set to depart Sunday to join the search. It will still take three to four days for the ship, the Ocean Shield, to reach the search zone — an area roughly the size of Poland about 1,850 kilometers (1,150 miles) to the west of Australia.(AP Photo/Rob Griffith)
CORRECTS TO UNDERWATER SEARCH-SURVEYING VEHICLE - An underwater search-surveying vehicle sits on the wharf ready to be fitted to the defense ship Ocean Shield to aid in her roll in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in Perth, Australia, Sunday, March 30, 2014. The Australian warship with an aircraft black box detector was set to depart Sunday to join the search. It will still take three to four days for the ship, the Ocean Shield, to reach the search zone — an area roughly the size of Poland about 1,850 kilometers (1,150 miles) to the west of Australia.(AP Photo/Rob Griffith)

PERTH, Australia - Despite what Australia called an “intensifying search effort,” an international hunt Sunday by aircraft and ships in the southern Indian Ocean found no debris linked to the Malaysian jet that vanished more than three weeks ago.

Several dozen angry Chinese relatives of Flight 370 passengers demanded “evidence, truth, dignity” from Malaysian authorities, expressing their frustrations at a hotel near Kuala Lumpur as the mystery drags on.

Nine aircraft and eight ships searching the waters off western Australia found only “fishing equipment and other flotsam” not connected to the Malaysia Airlines plane, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said. The Boeing 777 disappeared March 8 while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people aboard.

But at least four orange objects that were more than 6 feet in size were seen by the crew of an Australian P3 Orion search plane, said the pilot, Flight Lt. Russell Adams, after returning to base.

“I must stress that we can’t confirm the origin of these objects,” he said, adding that images of the items have yet to be verified, and a GPS buoy was dropped and ships must still investigate.

Adams said it was “the most visibility we had of any objects in the water and gave us the most promising leads.”

The planes and ships are scouring a search zone that was redefined Friday based on satellite data from the Boeing 777, but they have found no debris associated with the flight, said Australian navy Commodore Peter Leavy. The zone lies in a shipping lane where sea trash is common, complicating the effort.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott insisted the “intensifying search effort” was positive because objects “have been recovered from the ocean” in the zone after a week-long search in another area saw items from planes that ships never managed to find.

Searchers were hampered by rain and low clouds but still were able to look for debris because of visibility of about 6 miles. It takes planes about 2½ hours to get to the area, allowing a five-hour search before they must return.

Other objects spotted so far include three with white, red and orange colors by the Chinese plane, China’s official Xinhua News Agency said. The missing Boeing 777’s exterior was red, white, blue and gray.

For a full week, searchers relied on satellite imagery from various countries as they tried to find the plane in a zone to the south of the current area. They abruptly shifted the site Friday after authorities concluded the plane could not have traveled as far as they had thought based on its estimated speed and fuel consumption.

The Ocean Shield, an Australian warship with a U.S. device that detects “pings” from the flight recorders, was joining the search. It will still take three to four days for the Ocean Shield to reach the search zone.

“The ship will take part in the surface search until the debris is positively identified and an underwater search area is then predicted,” U.S. Navy Capt. Mark Matthews said.

In addition to the ping locator, the ship will also have an unmanned underwater vehicle and other equipment to look for wreckage on the seabed.

The search area is so big that investigators are first hoping to find floating debris so they could set a smaller zone using sophisticated analysis to determine a location from where the pieces drifted.

At a hotel near Kuala Lumpur, a group of Chinese relatives of passengers on the plane demanded that the Malaysian government apologize for its handling of the search.

The group, which flew in from Beijing, waved banners that read: “We want evidence, truth, dignity” and “Hand us the murderer. Tell us the truth. Give us our relatives back.”

Two-thirds of the 227 passengers aboard the flight were Chinese, and the plane’s disappearance has sparked broad outrage in China, with celebrities joining in and travel agencies announcing boycotts.

Flight booking website eLong said it was suspending Malaysia Airlines flight sales until the relatives are satisfied with the government’s response. On Wednesday, Chinese touring agency CYTS said it would stop offering tours to Malaysia because of safety concerns.

Jiang Hui, the relatives’ designated representative, said they wanted a government apology for what they see as missteps in the initial handling of the disaster as well as Prime Minister Najib Razak’s statement that indicated the plane had crashed with no survivors. Jiang said the relatives felt the conclusion was announced without sufficient evidence.

He said the group wanted to meet with airline and government officials, although he stopped short of saying that included Najib, as earlier proposed by some relatives.

Malaysia Airlines said it would fly family members to Perth, but only once wreckage is confirmed to have been found from the plane. It said a family assistance center would be set up in Perth.

Information for this article was contributed by Scott McDonald, Eileen Ng, Chris Lines, Kristen Gelineau, Rod McGuirk, Didi Tang and Louise Watt of The Associated Press.

Front Section, Pages 5 on 03/31/2014

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