Chinese satellite finds object that might be Flight 370

KPRC Houston ^ | 3/22/14 | CNN staff

[SilvieWaldorfMD]

(CNN) - China has new satellite images showing a large object floating in the southern search area, the Malaysian transport minister said Saturday.

The object is 22 meters long and 30 meters wide, (72 feet by 98 feet) , Hishammuddin Hussein announced. He told reporters he's just gotten the information, and China will release more details in "coming hours."

The search for the missing Malaysian jetliner expanded Saturday as various countries dispatched additional aircraft and ships to scan the choppy waters of the southern Indian Ocean.

[Uncle Chip]

It’s possible that it’s not even the same piece of debris.

It’s 25% larger than the one the Aussie’s showed a couple days ago.

[NELSON111]

There is nothing on the aircraft...or part of the aircraft...that would be 70 feet wide and 90’ long. The fuselage is only 21’ wide....and the wings are only a little wider than that at their widest point.

[robert14]

Hello Uncle Chip. Do a Google search on “777 emergency slide”. The slides are designed to double as life rafts. They are about 20m x 5m. They would also appear as an “extended U” in a photo from a distance. That corresponds almost exactly to the Chinese photo.

[Vermont Lt]

Someone toss moochelle out of a plane?

[mazda77]

Nope, both are dimension estimate at 24 meters. To me it looks like the same thing. The differences of clarity can easily be the angle and time of day each was taken.

[Uncle Chip]

That image per ABC News is 4 days old.

My guess is that the Chinese SAR vessels got the image/location fresh off the satellite, searched the area but found nothing, and so now are posting the picture.

[mazda77]

If it is 4 days old, how old is the Aussie image?

[robert14]

Hello Nelson111. After reviewing 777 evacuation slides on google I am even more convinced that what we are looking at in the photo is an evacuation slide from the 777. I know the advertised dimensions are off but the relative dimensions from the photo shows it to be a slide.

[RayChuang88]

Again, seeing the object on satellite is one thing. But to really find out, we need to get this to fly overhead to confirm:

Northrup Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk

[Spartan302]

Might just be an evac slide, which means jet may have landed somewhat intact.

OR....

Its been air dropped there a long time ago to perpetuate the misdirection.

And what if.....it is real, and possibly, just possibly survivors?

[Uncle Chip]

If it is 4 days old, how old is the Aussie image?

Really old and perhaps hundreds of miles from where it was seen.

The Aussie object was 24 meters long (79 feet)

The Chinese object is 22 meters long and 30 meters wide, (72 feet by 98 feet)

On the news last night someone said that the currents likely carried any debris from between 300 to 1000 miles away from the crash site over the last 14 days.

[robert14]

Updated dimensions are 20m x 13m.

[Uncle Chip]

Well the slide would float and it does appear to be something U-shaped.

Would that mean that the plane landed in the ocean and someone deployed the slide or could it deploy itself if it crashed???

[mazda77]

Both dimensions are just estimations. 3 meters difference in a sat image is extremely plausible. I could import both into AutoCad but not knowing the camera information (lens, altitude and angle from perpendicular) that exercise would be about as good a guess as both.

So, now we are three full days days into this sat image and still nothing? Your hopes of this being anything of the aircraft are vaporizing rapidly and the 24th is approaching.

[mazda77]

if a slide is 78 feet long and this U-shaped object is just as long, they would have to be a slide about 200’ long. I think you are fishing in the wrong waters. Remember the last time the Chinese gave us an image? I said all along it was a fishing boat with the net booms out to either side.

[robert14]

http://www.aeromaintenancegroup.com/assets/images/produits/1349370281Slides%20(Medium).jpg

Hello again Mazda77. Check out the above page

[robert14]

http://www.aeromaintenancegroup.com/assets/images/produits/1349370281Slides%20(Medium).jpg

Hello again Mazda77. Check out the above page

[McGruff]

Let’s hope this is a real clue not another false hope. I just heard that it takes 5 hours to get to the scene a couple of hours of search time then another 5 hours to return to base. And satellite images can only be captured during cloudless conditions. Also this site s approx. 60 miles from the last satellite images.

[robert14]

Please notice the inflated appendages on the emergency slide photo. They also appear on the Chinese image at the top of the object.

[OwenKellogg]