Plane debris lead a ‘false alarm’

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (2ND UPDATE) – One potential lead to finding the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has turned out to be a dead end, CNN reported.

According to a US official who did not wish to be named, a “strange object” seen by a Singaporean search plane late Sunday turned out to not be debris from the missing aircraft. The official said a US reconnaisance plane “thought it saw something like debris, but it was a false alarm.”

CNN noted that more than 40 planes and over two dozen ships from a number of countries were now a part of the search effort.

Possible debris from vanished Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 was found in the sea off Vietnam by a search team Sunday, March 9, a senior official said.

It was the first time that authorities had given any positive indication that traces of the Boeing 777, which disappeared in the early hours of Saturday carrying 239 people, may have been discovered.

“We received information from a Vietnamese plane saying that they found two broken objects, which seem like those of an aircraft, located about 50 miles to the south-west of Tho Chu Island,” said the senior from official from the National Committee for Search and Rescue, who did not want to be named.

“As it is night they cannot fish them out for proper identification. They have located the position of the areas and flown back to the land,” he added.

Planes and boats would be sent back to the area Monday to investigate further, he said.

Tho Chu island is part of a small archipelago off the south-western tip of Vietnam which belongs to the communist country.

Flight 370 went missing somewhere between the coasts of Malaysia and Vietnam early Saturday morning en route overnight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Two large oil slicks which authorities suspect were caused by jet fuel were detected late Saturday further south off the island chain.

Malaysia is investigating 4 names on the flight manifest of and an airliner that vanished with 239 people aboard, as it probes a possible terror link, the transport minister said Sunday, March 9. (READ: Malaysia investigates possible terror link)

The comments by Hishammuddin Hussein looked set to fuel speculation over whether a security breach or hijack may have played a role in what would be Malaysia’s worst-ever aviation disaster.

Those fears arose after it emerged Saturday, March 8, that two people boarded the missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 with stolen European passports.

Hishammuddin also confirmed US media reports that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was dispatching personnel to Malaysia.

“I have also spoken to international intelligence agencies to assist us, and I’ll be meeting them later this afternoon,” he said, adding the FBI was among them. – with reports from Agence France-Presse/Rappler.com