More satellite images have given searchers the latest clues in the hunt for the downed Malaysian jetliner, as planes flew out of Australia on Thursday trying to spot 122 objects seen floating in the turbulent Indian Ocean where officials believe the missing passenger jet may have crashed, according CBS News.
Almost two-thirds of the 239 people who died on the flight were from China, and the first search plane in the air was a Chinese Ilyushin IL-76 aircraft, CBS News reported.
In total, 11 planes and five ships are set to scour a search area 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles) southwest of Perth on Australia's western coast, but the Australian Maritime Safety Authority cautioned that weather was expected to deteriorate later Thursday, according to CBS News.
A search Wednesday for the objects which were seen by a French satellite was unsuccessful, CBS News reported.
Malaysian officials again sought to assuage the angry relatives of the flight's 153 Chinese passengers, according CBS News. Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein also expressed exasperation, pointedly saying Chinese families "must also understand that we in Malaysia also lost our loved ones," as did "so many other nations."
The latest satellite images, captured Sunday and relayed by French-based Airbus Defense and Space, are the first to suggest a debris field from the plane, rather than just isolated objects, CBS News reported. The items were spotted in roughly the same area as other objects previously seen by Australian and Chinese satellites.
At a news conference in Kuala Lumpur, Hishammuddin said some of them "appeared to be bright, possibly indicating solid materials," CBS News reported.
Officials from the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said Thursday's search was split into two areas totaling 30,000 square miles, according to CBS News.
Planes and ships from the U.S., China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand are involved in the hunt, hoping to find even a single piece of the jet that could offer tangible evidence of a crash and provide clues to the location of the wreckage, CBS News reported.
Malaysia said Monday that an analysis of the final known satellite signals from the plane showed that it had gone down in the sea, with no survivors, according to CBS News.
