Objects retrieved by Chinese and Australian ships on Friday are not related to missing Malaysia Airlines jet, Chinese state media said. But more objects found Saturday have not been ruled out as having a connection to the plane.
Objects were retrieved by a Chinese ship during Friday’s search operations, but China’s state broadcaster CCTV said that they were merely garbage.
Australian officials confirmed that a Chinese aircraft had spotted three objects in a new search area for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet off Australia's west coast on Saturday.
"AMSA has tasked the China Maritime Safety Administration ship Haixun 01 to locate and investigate the objects," the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said Saturday in a statement. The objects cannot be "verified or discounted" as part of the missing jet until they are retrieved, the statement said.
The southern Indian Ocean is now the main focus of the search, where unidentified pieces of debris have been spotted by New Zealand and Australian Air Force Orions.
A previous version of this story incorrectly stated objects found Saturday, not Friday, were determined to not be related to the missing Malaysia Airlines jet.
