MH370 search: Object found on Australian coast wasn't from missing plane
By David Molko, Ed Payne and Mariano Castillo, CNN
April 24, 2014 --
Augusta, Australia (CNN) -- A metal object that washed ashore on Australia's coast wasn't from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, officials said.
Detailed pictures of the object were enough to convince investigators that it wasn't a lead in the search for the missing plane, the Australian agency leading the search for the aircraft said on Thursday.
Officials had previously called the piece of metal, which appeared to have rivets on one side, an "object of interest" in the search.
Police picked it up near Augusta, Australia, roughly 1,000 miles away from the suspected crash site, after many futile days of searching for the missing plane.
Authorities haven't said what they think the object could be.
Possible promising leads have turned out to be false alarms for weeks in the lengthy search for the missing plane, which disappeared mid-flight on March 8 with 239 people aboard. One major challenge that's complicated the search: the ocean is full of garbage. Other objects search teams have spotted in the Indian Ocean turned out to be trash, jellyfish and fishing gear.
Bad weather grounded planes searching for signs of debris on Wednesday. And a high-tech underwater drone found no sign of the Boeing 777 jetliner.
If nothing turns up in the Bluefin-21's underwater search, the investigation will move into a new phase that could involve new equipment and an expanded search area.
And as the search came up empty again, a key question loomed: Are they looking in the right place?
...more at link
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/04/23/world ... nes-plane/
