Families furious as hunt for jet drags on

Australia’s prime minister said yesterday that he was hopeful clues will emerge soon to help find Flight 370 though searchers again failed to find jet debris.

His comments emerged as relatives of Chinese passengers on the plane protested in Malaysia to demand the government apologise over its handling of the search.

An increasing number of ships are scouring an area of the Indian Ocean off western Australia after a new search zone was identified on Friday.

But the only objects scooped up by the vessels so far have been “fishing equipment and other flotsam” not connected to the Malaysia Airlines plane that crashed on March 8 with 239 people on board, said the Australian Maritime Safety Authority.

In Sydney, Australian prime minister Tony Abbott insisted the “intensifying search effort” was positive because objects “have been recovered from the ocean” in the zone after a weeklong search in another area spotted items from planes that ships never managed to find.

The maritime safety authority said nine planes took part in the search yesterday, leaving in staggered times from a military base near the western city of Perth. Eight ships were on the scene, including the Australian navy supply ship HMAS Success, which will store any wreckage found.

Leavy said the operation in the new search zone is complicated because it lies in a shipping lane where sea trash is common.

Searchers were hampered by rain and low clouds, but were still able to look for signs of plane debris with visibility of about 10km. It takes planes about two-and- a-half hours to get to the area, giving them five hours of searching time before they must return to base.

Objects spotted so far include three with white, red, and orange colours by a Chinese plane, China’s official Xinhua News Agency said. The missing Boeing 777’s exterior was red, white, blue, and grey.

In Malaysia, several dozen Chinese relatives of passengers of Flight 370 demanded that the Malaysian government apologise for its handling of the search and for the prime minister’s announcement that it crashed into the southern Indian Ocean before any wreckage was found.

The group staged its protest at a hotel near Kuala Lumpur, waving banners that read “We want evidence, truth, dignity”, and “Hand us the murderer. Tell us the truth. Give us our relatives back”. They also demanded a meeting with prime minister Najib Razak.