搜索飛機在中國衛星圖像顯示漂浮物海域未發現失聯班機殘骸
Malaysia and Vietnam say there is no sign of a missing Malaysian airliner in the area where Chinese satellite images showed potential debris floating in the water.
The two countries sent search planes over the area in the South China Sea on Thursday, but officials said they did not find anything.
China released the images Wednesday, with state media saying they showed three fairly large objects near the plane's original flight path toward Beijing.
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that U.S. investigators suspect the Malaysia Airlines plane remained in the air for four hours after passing its last known location over the Gulf of Thailand.
The report said the belief is based on data that is automatically sent by the plane's engines to the ground, and suggests the aircraft could have flown for an additional 4,000 kilometers.
Ships and aircraft from 12 countries are involved in a sprawling search that covers 93,000 square kilometers in the waters on both sides of Malaysia. An extra four hours in the air would put the plane far outside the search area, reaching potentially into areas of the Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean or Pacific Ocean.馬來西亞和越南說，中國衛星圖像顯示了可能是馬航失聯班機殘骸的漂浮物，但在該水域沒有發現存在班機殘骸的任何跡象。
馬來西亞和越南星期四派飛機在南中國海有關水域上空搜索，但沒有發現任何東西。
馬來西亞民航局局長拉赫曼說，沒有發現有關失聯班機的任何線索。
中國星期三公佈了有關衛星圖像，同時中國國家媒體說，衛星圖像顯示在這架飛機原定的飛往北京的航線附近有三個相當大的漂浮物。
與此同時，華爾街日報星期四報道說，美國調查人員懷疑這架馬航班機在飛過位於泰國灣的最後確定位置後，又在空中停留了四小時。
華爾街日報說，做出這一判斷的根據是失聯班機引擎向地面自動發送的信號，並說這架班機可能又飛了4千公里。
來自12個國家的船隻和飛機在馬來西亞周邊海域進行搜索，搜索範圍達9萬3千平方公里。如果失聯班機又飛了四小時，就大大超出了目前的搜索範圍，可能進入了阿拉伯海、印度洋或太平洋上空。
