Boat reports ‘suspicious objects,’ thought to be debris from missing Malaysia Airlines plane
A Singaporean vessel participating in the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane has informed Vietnamese authorities that it has found some “suspicious objects” that may be from the missing aircraft, Vietnamese media said Sunday.
New reports based on radar anaylsis the missing Boeing 777 jet may have turned back towards Kuala Lumpur, but Malaysia’s air force chief refused to give more details. Rodzali Daud said “there is a possible indication that the aircraft made a turnback,” and that authorities were “trying to make sense of that.”
Malaysia Airlines Chief Executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said pilots were supposed to inform the airline and traffic control authorities if the plane does start to return. “From what we have, there was no such distress signal or distress call per se, so we are equally puzzled,” he said.
Earlier Sunday, Malaysia’s defense and transport minister said that the identities of four of the plane’s passengers are being investigated as “suspect.” Hishammuddin Hussein, who holds both ministerial positions, said that “the four names are with me,” but added that the investigation was focusing on “the entire passenger manifest.” Hussein also said that investigators from the FBI had joined the probe.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared with 239 people on board early Saturday with three Americans onboard: Philip Wood, age 51, of Texas and two small children, a 4-year-old and a 2-year-old – Nicole Meng and Yan Zhang.
More details on the flight, missing passengers and early reports – HERE