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 The debris, found on Wednesday on a beach at the southern tip of
Western Australia state, was seen as the first lead since April 4
when authorities detected what they believed was a signal from the
black box of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which disappeared on
March 8 with 239 people on board.
But it took Australian authorities less than a day to analyze
detailed photographs of the beached debris, no description of which
was given, and dismiss the possibility that it may be linked to the
plane.
"We're not seeing anything in this that would lead us to believe
that it is from a Boeing aircraft," Australian Transport Safety
Bureau commissioner Martin Dolan the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
That puts the focus of the search, the most expensive in aviation
history, back on U.S. Navy undersea drone Bluefin-21, which will
soon finish scouring a 10 square kms (6.2 square mile) stretch of
seabed where the acoustic pings were located.
Authorities have said if Bluefin-21 fails to find a trace of the
plane in its initial target search area, some 2,000 kms (1,200
miles) northwest of the Western Australian city of Perth, it will be
redeployed to new areas, still to be determined.
On Wednesday, Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told
reporters that authorities would be "increasing the assets that are
available for deep-sea search" and that his government was seeking
help from state oil company Petronas which has expertise in deep-sea
exploration.
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Search authorities would need to "regroup and restrategize" if
nothing was found in the current search zone, but the search would
"always continue", Hussein said.
Australian search officials said weather conditions may impact the
search effort after the air component was suspended for the previous
two days because of heavy rain, strong winds, rough seas related to
related to Tropical Cyclone Jack.
Up to 11 military aircraft and 11 ships were expected to help with
the day's search although authorities would monitor the weather
before the sorties commenced.
(Reporting by Byron Kaye and Sonali Paul)
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