KUALA LUMPUR, malaysia — They are the most tantalizing clues yet: 122 objects spotted by satellite, floating in the Indian Ocean where officials think the missing Malaysian jetliner went down.
Bad weather, the passage of time and the sheer remoteness of their location kept answers out of the searchers’ grasp.
Nineteen days into the mystery of Flight 370, the discovery of the objects, ranging in size from 3 feet to 75 feet, offered “the most credible lead that we have,” a top Malaysian official said Wednesday.
With clouds briefly thinning in a stretch of ocean known for dangerous weather, aircraft and ships from six countries combed the waters far southwest of the Australian coast. Crews saw only three objects, one of them blue and two others that appeared to be rope.
But search planes could not relocate them or find the 122 pieces seen by a French satellite. Limited by fuel and distance, they turned back for the night.
That echoed the frustration of earlier sweeps that failed to zero in on three objects seen by satellites in recent days. The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 vanished early March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Eleven planes and five ships are set to scour a search area 1,550 miles southwest of Perth on Australia’s western coast on Thursday, but heavy rains, strong winds, low clouds and reduced visibility were forecast.
Malaysia Airlines ran a full-page condolence advertisement with a black background in a major newspaper.
“Our sincerest condolences go out to the loved ones of the 239 passengers, friends and colleagues. Words alone cannot express our enormous sorrow and pain,” read the advertisement in the New Straits Times.
The latest satellite images, captured Sunday and relayed by French-based Airbus Defense and Space, were the first to suggest a debris field from the plane, rather than isolated objects.
In Kuala Lumpur, Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said some of them “appeared to be bright, possibly indicating solid materials.” If the objects are confirmed to be from the flight, “then we can move on to deep sea surveillance search and rescue, hopefully, hoping against hope,” Hishammuddin said.
