PERTH, Australia — France provided new satellite data Sunday showing possible debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines jet, as searchers combing a remote part of the southern Indian Ocean tried without success to find a wooden pallet that could yield clues to one of the world’s most baffling aviation mysteries.
The new data consist of “radar echoes” in the same part of the ocean where satellite images previously released by Australia and China showed what might be debris from the plane, French authorities said.
Flight 370 vanished March 8 with 239 people aboard while en route from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing, setting off a multinational search that has turned up no confirmed pieces and nothing conclusive on what happened to the jet.
The latest satellite data came to light as Australian authorities coordinating the search — conducted about 1,550 miles southwest of Perth — sent planes and a ship to try to “re-find” a wooden pallet that appeared to be surrounded by straps of different lengths and colors.
The pallet was spotted Saturday from a search plane, but the spotters were unable to take photos of it, and a PC Orion military plane dispatched to locate it could not find it.
“So, we’ve gone back to that area again today to try to re-find it,” said Mike Barton, chief of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority’s rescue coordination center. He added: “It’s a possible lead.”
Wooden pallets are often used by ships, Barton cautioned. But he said airlines also commonly use them in cargo holds.
An official with Malaysia Airlines said Sunday night that the flight was, in fact, carrying wooden pallets. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with company policy.
AMSA said it has requested a cargo manifest from Malaysia Airlines.
The search Sunday was frustrating because “there was cloud down to the surface, and at times we were completely enclosed by cloud,” said Royal Australian Air Force flight Lt. Russell Adams.
Nothing of interest was found, he said. But he added that the search was worth it because “we might do 10 sorties and find nothing, but on that 11th flight when you find something, you know that you’re actually contributing to some answers for somebody.”
