MH370 crash: Storms threaten search after new debris sighting

PERTH: Thunderstorms and gale-force winds threatened to impede a frantic international search Thursday for wreckage from Flight MH370 after satellite images of more than 100 floating objects sparked fresh hopes of a breakthrough.
Malaysia said the imagery taken in recent days by a French satellite showed "122 potential objects" in the remote southern Indian Ocean, although nothing has yet been pulled from the treacherous seas despite a multinational recovery operation.
Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein has cautioned that it was impossible to determine whether the objects were related to the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777, which crashed on March 8 with 239 people aboard after mysteriously disappearing.
But the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), which is coordinating the search some 2,500 kilometres (1,550 miles) southwest of Perth, said they were in an area authorities have pinpointed as a potential crash zone.
"Positions in the satellite information released by Malaysia Remote Sensing Agency were within Wednesday's search area," it said as a fleet of planes were set to leave for the area before the weather worsens.

Six military planes from Australia, China, Japan and the United States will fly sorties throughout the day, along with five civil aircraft, scouring two areas covering a cumulative 78,000 square kilometres in an increasingly frantic hunt for clues to exactly what happened.
MH370 deviated inexplicably off its intended course between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing, flying thousands of kilometres in the wrong direction before plunging into the sea. Malaysia believes the plane was deliberately diverted by someone on board.
Five ships are also in the search zone, including Australia's HMAS Success and Chinese vessels Xue Long, Kunlunshan, Haikou and Qiandaohu.
But they are operating in a wild expanse of ocean described by Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott as "about as close to nowhere as it's possible to be" where gale-force winds and towering waves are routinely whipped up.
AMSA and Australia's Bureau of Meteorology warned the weather was expected to deteriorate later Thursday.
"Potentially thunderstorms down there as well as winds picking up, and they could get to gale force conditions," said bureau spokesman Neil Bennett. - AFP

MH370 crash: FBI analysis of pilot's computer files coming soon

WASHINGTON: The FBI will soon complete its analysis of data from a flight simulator taken from the home of the pilot of a missing Malaysia Airlines jet, the US agency's director said Wednesday.
Malaysian officials had asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation to help recover files deleted from the simulator's hard drive.
FBI chief James Comey told lawmakers that experts were working "literally round the clock" to finish their analysis, in the hopes that the data could provide clues as to what happened to Flight 370, which vanished March 8 with 239 passengers and crew on board.
Malaysia "took us up on our technical abilities, which involves the exploitation of certain computer forensic materials that they've given to us. That work is ongoing," Comey told a House subcommittee meeting to discuss the FBI's 2015 budget request.

"I don't want to say more about that in an open setting, but I expect it to be done fairly shortly, within a day or two."
Malaysian police removed the simulator from Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah's home nearly two weeks ago, after investigators said they believed the Boeing 777 had been deliberately diverted from its intended route by someone on board.
Malaysia on Monday announced that evidence showed the jet crashed in the southern Indian Ocean.
A multinational search for the wreckage continued Wednesday, energized by recent satellite images showing more than 100 floating objects in the remote waters.
Comey did not indicate whether the results of the analysis would be made public. - AFP