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　　Planes and a ship scrambled¹ to find a pallet and other debris² in the sea in an effort to determine whether the objects are from the Malaysia Airlines jet that has been missing for more than two weeks.

　　China has released a satellite image showing an object floating in the sea area where planes and ships have been searching since similar images from an Australian satellite emerged earlier in the week.

　　China's image shows an object that appeared to measure 22 meters by 13 meters.

　　Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbot says there is "increasing hope" of finding wreckage³ from the flight in the capital of Papua New Guinea.

　　"One of our civilian⁴ search aircraft got visuals on a number of objects in a fairly small area in the overall Australian search zone. Finally, the search is being joined today by four additional aircraft: two Chinese aircraft and two Japanese Orions."

　　However, he said that it is still too early to confirm their linkage⁵ to the missing flight.

　　It is the latest in a series of clues that experts and searchers are following in efforts to solve the mystery of what happened to Flight 370 when it disappeared on March 8 with 239 people on board, with two-thirds of the passengers being Chinese.

　　An Australian naval⁶ vessel⁷ is now in the area, with a small flotilla of Chinese ships heading to the search zone in the coming days.

　　At the same time, Japan and India are also sending more planes, while Australian and Chinese search and navy vessels⁸ are steaming towards the southern search zone.

　　John Young, General Manager of Australian Maritime⁹ Safety Authority's Emergency Response Division, confirmed that Chinese military aircraft would be involved in the search.

　　"China has offered the two Ilyushin-76 aircraft; there are a number of war ships on their way to the area. The Chinese polar research and supply ship Xue Long which we worked with in an incident in January in the Antarctic, is now on their way to the search area. So, China is very focused on assisting with this search."

　　But Sam LaGrone with the U.S. Naval Institute says the search will be one of the world's most difficult operations.

　　"Probably the only situation that comes to mind when you are thinking about the depth of the ocean, or situation that probably would come to mind would be similar to the search for the Titanic¹⁰. That was underneath¹¹ the ocean, under thousands, thousands of feet of water, and that could be a very similar situation there, but you are looking for something that's much, much smaller."

　　The Chinese aircraft will be ready to take part in searches on Monday, with the first Chinese ships due in the search zone on Tuesday.

　　For CRI, this is Li Jing.

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