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MH370: 'Object of interest' found

An "object of interest" in the search for the Malaysian airliner has been recovered on the coast of Western Australia, an official says. FULL STORY | PARTNER: WE WANT THE DATA

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MH370 search: Object found on Australian coast 'not likely to be of use'

By David Molko, Ed Payne and Mariano Castillo, CNN

April 23, 2014 -- Updated 2217 GMT (0617 HKT)

Object in MH370 search not likely of use

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

NEW: Official: Analysis of photos "is enough not to warrant further analysis of the material"
NEW: The metal object is "not likely to be of use" in the search for the missing plane
Information from the flight data recorders will be key
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went missing 47 days ago

(CNN) -- A metal object that washed ashore far from the area where investigators are looking for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is "not likely to be of use" in the search for the missing plane, a top Australian official said.

"Analysis of the photos is enough not to warrant further analysis of the material," Australian Transport Safety Bureau Chief Commissioner Martin Dolan said Thursday.

Australian 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 up the object 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.

'Object of interest' found in Australia

Bajc: There's no evidence MH370 crashed

A high-tech underwater drone found no sign of the Boeing 777 jetliner on Wednesday.

The Bluefin-21 has scanned about 80% of the intended territory.

With 20% of the search area left to be explored by the drone, the search strategy remains the same, Hishammuddin Hussein, Malaysia's acting transport minister, said Wednesday.

"We will continue with the search operation until we fully cover the search area," he said.

Stormy weather postponed the air search for a second day Wednesday. The ships plying the waters off the coast of Australia kept their vigil.

And despite the search efforts for MH370 repeatedly coming up empty during these 47 days, there's no suggestion the hunt in the southern Indian Ocean is anywhere close to ending.

Quite to the contrary, according to Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

"We are not going to abandon ... the families of the 239 people who were on that plane by lightly surrendering while there is reasonable hope of finding something," he said Wednesday. "We may well rethink the search, but we will not rest until we have done everything we can to solve this mystery."

The investigation into Flight 370 is the responsibility of Malaysia. But in early April, Australia accepted an invitation from Malaysia to lead the search for the missing aircraft and participate in the investigation as an accredited representative.

What comes next?

Malaysian and Australian authorities are already mapping out a long-term strategy for the search, which could go on for months or years, if the two-year search for Air France Flight 447 is any guide.

Guidelines drafted by Malaysia raise the possibility of a significantly wider search area should the current underwater search fail to turn up evidence of the plane. The document discusses how best to deploy resources, including new underwater search assets.

If the underwater search comes up empty, it could ground the air search as well, CNN aviation analyst Miles O'Brien said.

"If it doesn't pan out, then all the equations that have been put in the mix to determine where debris might be by hindcasting the ocean currents, all of that is for naught," he said.

The next logical step after the underwater search is to "rethink all of the information we have at hand," ocean search specialist Rob McCallum told CNN.

An expanded search area might include the last 370 miles of the plane's flight path, perhaps 15 miles on either side, he said.

He also said it would make sense to turn to deep-towed sonar, which provides less resolution than the Bluefin-21 but about 10 times the range.

What happens if data recorders are found

Investigators would love to find the flight data recorders from Flight 370, a potential treasure trove of information into what happened to the jetliner and the 239 passengers and crew on board.

If found, the "black boxes" probably would go to the Australian Transport Safety Board's accident investigation lab.

But the investigation is officially Malaysian, so that country's officials would decide where the boxes would go.

Australia is just one of a handful of countries that have the capability and technical know-how to decipher what's inside a black box.

The Malaysian Cabinet approved the appointment of an international investigation team to look into the disappearance of Flight 370, Hishammuddin said.

The names of the members will be announced next week, he added. He also said the team will not be looking at the criminal aspects of the investigation, which remain under the Royal Malaysian Police.

"The main purpose is to evaluate and determine the cause of the accident," Hishammuddin said.

Malaysia has completed a preliminary report on the incident, as required by the International Civil Aviation Organization, but has not released it publicly, he said.

Inside a black box investigation lab

Getting the data

Sometimes, getting the data is simple.

"A lot of our work is with undamaged recorders, and it's very easy to download them much as you would a USB memory stick," said Neil Campbell, an Australian transport safety investigator with more than two decades of experience.

But the process becomes much more technical if the recorders are damaged.

In the case of water damage, possible after weeks at the bottom of the ocean, Campbell will rinse the board very carefully, then use a water displacement liquid, before drying out the circuit board in an oven. That process can take a couple of days.

After that, it's a process of downloading the raw data and decoding the information, or in the case of the voice recorder, listening to what was said.

It may be the only way the families of those on board the March 8 flight -- that set off from the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur destined for Beijing -- may get answers to the questions they've been asking.

"There's a satisfaction in working out what happened with the accident and the conclusions, and the closure that that brings," Campbell said.

Billionaire's home searched

The home of a billionaire businessman, whose family appears to control the company that owns the sunken ferry, is searched as part of a widening investigation.

NEW Tears as bodies arrive home
NEW A procession of portraits
Ferry tragedy in photos
Are more captains abandoning ship?
South Korean authorities search ferry owner's offices as probe widens

By Michael Pearson, Steven Jiang and Andrew Stevens, CNN

April 23, 2014 -- Updated 1657 GMT (0057 HKT)

Ferry divers: No air pockets found
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Investigators search ferry owner's offices, other sites
- Ship inspection agency also being probed, news agency reports
- Hopes are fading for survivors with news that divers haven't found any air pockets
- Devastated high school set to resume classes Thursday
Jindo, South Korea (CNN) -- South Korean authorities searched the offices of the company that owns the sunken ferry Sewol on Wednesday, prosecutors confirmed to CNN, broadening a criminal investigation that has already ensnared 11 members of the ill-fated ship's crew.

Investigators also searched offices of 20 organizations affiliated with Cheonghaejin Marine Co. as well as the home of Yoo Byung-eun, a billionaire whose family appears to control the company, according to the semiofficial Yonhap News Agency.

Prosecutors in the South Korean city of Busan are also investigating the private organization responsible for inspecting and certifying ships for the South Korean government, Yonhap reported.

Investigators are looking for any evidence of possible wrongdoing in relation to the Korean Register of Shipping's safety inspection of the Sewol, the news agency reported, citing an unnamed prosecutor.

The Sewol sank April 16 during a routine transit from Incheon to the resort island of Jeju. Among its 476 passengers and crew were more than 300 high school students on a field trip.

Memorial stirs raw emotions for families

Photos: South Korean ship sinks

Officials: Dead still wearing life vests

South Korean ferry rescue operation

As of early Thursday, authorities had retrieved 159 bodies, leaving 143 passengers missing.

Eleven members of the Sewol's crew, including its captain, have been arrested in connection with the disaster.

Capt. Lee Joon-seok and some other crew members have been criticized for failing to evacuate the sinking ship quickly and for giving orders for passengers to remain where they were. Lee has said he was worried about the cold water, strong currents and lack of rescue vessels.

Lee and others have also drawn public anger for leaving the ship while many passengers remained on board.

Authorities still do not know precisely what caused the incident. It did not appear that the ship was overloaded, according to figures provided by the company and the South Korean coast guard. But coast guard officials said investigators won't know for sure how much cargo the ship was carrying until it is salvaged.

Young crew member hailed as heroine

Hopes fading

South Korean officials continue to call their operation a search and rescue mission, but hopes are fading that survivors may yet be found.

Rescue officials said Wednesday that divers have yet to find an air pocket on the third or fourth decks, where most of the passenger bedrooms and the ship's cafeteria are located.

Rescuers haven't found a single survivor since 174 people were rescued the day the ship sank one week ago.

Many of the bodies pulled from the ferry have come from bedrooms on the capsized ship's fourth deck, according to Ko Myung-suk, a spokesman for the joint task force coordinating the search.

Divers had expected to find passengers inside the third-floor cafeteria but failed to find any, the South Korean coast guard said.

Student made first ferry distress call

Ferry captain: From poster boy to pariah

New ferry recordings reveal chaos, panic

Volunteer divers keep hope alive

While divers still have many rooms to search, no air pockets have been found on either deck, authorities said.

Students remembered

Grief over the sinking has spread across the Korean Peninsula. Even South Korea's nemesis, North Korea, sent condolences Wednesday.

More than two-thirds of those on board the ferry were students from Danwon High School in Ansan, an hour's drive south of Seoul.

On Wednesday, some of their faces stared out from photos amid a huge bank of white flowers at a basketball area in Ansan that has been converted into a temporary memorial.

A permanent memorial is being planned for a park in Ansan.

Hundreds of people filed through the memorial Wednesday, passing about 50 large wreaths on their way to the wall of flowers and pictures.

Somber music played as visitors, including friends and relatives, passed quietly among the tributes. Some wept.

One man, from Seoul, has no ties to the school but came to grieve for the young lives lost.

"I have a daughter," the man told CNN's Nic Robertson. "I think of her alone in black waters. It's just so terrible. I'm angry that I couldn't do anything. So helpless."

The disaster has taken a devastating toll on the high school, where classes are due to resume Thursday.

The school is missing most of its sophomores and a vice principal who was rescued from the ferry but found dead two days after the sinking. He'd apparently hanged himself from a tree.

Lee Seung-min, 17, said one of her closest girlfriends is among the missing. She said she still holds out hope that her friend will return despite the increasingly slim chances of finding survivors.

Before the field trip, the two girls had talked about what universities they might attend, she said.

In recent maritime disasters, captains didn't hang around

Students remember vice principal who took own life

Murky waters cloud the horror facing rescue divers

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