Thai Satellite Spots 300 Objects in Indian Ocean

A Thai satellite has detected about 300 objects floating in the Indian Ocean near the search area for the missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner.

Anond Snidvongs, director of Thailand's space technology development agency, said Thursday the images showed "300 objects of various sizes" in the southern Indian Ocean about 2,700 kilometers (1,675 miles) southwest of Perth.

He says the images were taken by the Thaichote satellite on Monday, took two days to process and were relayed to Malaysian authorities on Wednesday.

Anond says the objects were about 200 kilometers (125 miles) from the area where a French satellite on Sunday spotted 122 objects. It remains uncertain whether the objects are from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared March 8 with 239 people aboard.

Australian officials say search operations for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane have been suspended for the day due to bad weather.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority says all planes that headed for the search area in the southern Indian Ocean earlier Thursday are now returning to Perth and ships are leaving too.

Heavy rains, strong winds, low clouds and reduced visibility are expected in the search zone, which is about 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles) southwest of Perth.

Eleven planes and five ships had planned to scour the area on Thursday for Flight 370, which vanished early March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people aboard.

Malaysia says an analysis of the final known satellite signals from the plane shows it went down in the sea.

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