Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said during a press conference in Kuala Lumpur that “based on satellite imagery, it can be confirmed that no one on board the Malaysian flight MH 370, that went missing, survived.”
Earlier today, the Australian Navy’s P3 Orion detected two objects in the southern Indian Ocean search area that could possibly be related to the Flight MH370.
Based on the statement, the MH370 had most likely crashed off the coast of Perth, Australia. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said that the HMAS Success is at the scene trying to locate the MH370 debris, described as “gray or green circular object” and an “orange rectangular object.”
Chinese planes have already spotted “suspicious objects” while searching the area for the missing plane’s remains, Xinhua news agency reported today.
U.S. Pacific Command has ordered U.S. Pacific Fleet to move a black box locator into the region today.
The TPL-25 Towed Pinger Locator System is able to locate black boxes on downed Navy and commercial aircraft down to a maximum depth of 20,000 feet anywhere in the world. Commercial aircraft pingers are mounted directly on the flight recorder, the recovery of which is critical to an accident investigation.
The Pinger Locator is towed behind a vessel at slow speeds, generally 1-5 knots, depending on the depth. The tow array carries a passive listening device for detecting pingers that automatically transmit an acoustic pulse.
[mappress] Naval Today Staff, March 24, 2014; Image: Navy