A Chinese satellite hunting for a missing Malaysian airplane has located a suspected wreckage at sea, officials said.
The images show three floating pieces of debris in the South China sea between Malaysia and Vietnam, according to a Chinese government agency.
China’s State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense said the images were captured March 9 — the day after the plane went missing — but weren’t released until Wednesday.
Although the discovery was considered pivotal, authorities were cautious in their assessment in the wake of other sightings that turned out to be false.
Although the fate of the plane has devolved into one of the world’s greatest mysteries, authorities said that everything appeared to be normal on board Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 minutes before it went missing over the South China sea.
“All right, roger that” a pilot replied to a radio message from Malaysian air control.
Malaysian officials revealed the plane’s last communication at a news conference held in Beijing for relatives of the 154 Chinese who are among the missing passengers.
As the plane carrying 239 people reached the boundary between Malaysian and Vietnamese airspace, Saturday an air control announced it was handing over to Ho Chi Minh City Control.
One of the pilots also replied, “All right, good night.”
Moments later, the plane, at cruising altitude, around 35,000 feet, dropped from radar with no signal from pilots.
Authorities have chased one conflicting lead after another.
Malaysia’s air force chief, Rodzali Daud, said earlier Wednesday that an “unidentified plot” was seen on military radar intermittently for around 45 minutes after the plane vanished at 1:30 am on Saturday.
He said that radar trail ended at a point over the sea, far west of its planned route.
“We are trying to corroborate with all the other radars, including the civil radar,” Daud told reporters.
The updates came as an oil rig worker claimed that he saw a plane go down off the south-east coast of Vietnam.
In an email sent to his employer, the worker describes seeing what he believes to be the missing Boeing 777 burning — in one piece — at high altitude, flying perpendicular to the standard plane routes that cross over the area.
“I believe I saw the Malaysian Airlines plane come down,” the man writes, according to an email obtained and tweeted by ABC News anchor Bob Woodruff. “The timing is right.”
According to Woodruff, Vietnamese officials confirmed they received the email, but found nothing in the water.
The multinational search was in its fifth day as frustrated relatives, desperate for news about their loved ones, pelted officials with water bottles during one update session.
“This is unprecedented, what we are going through,” Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters in Kuala Lumpur. “Coordinating so many countries together is not something that is easy.”