Two grainy images could be our best clues yet in search for lost plane

So far all investigators have to go on are two grainy satellite images that may or may not be wreckage from missing flight MH370.

But there are a few compelling reasons to conclude that they could be the strongest lead so far in this 12-day-old aviation mystery.

The debris lies at the very end of the southern “search corridor” provided to investigators by satellite operators Inmarsat who were able to spot radio signals from the missing plane.

The end of the search corridor is the furthest-most point the flight could have travelled given the fuel it was carrying when it left Kuala Lumpur.

In addition, the images were captured by US spy satellites 4 days ago. It is likely that they have been analysed carefully before being made public.

But also today, a key new plot twist emerged in the grim drama that is the disappearance of MH370. The information that guided Australian and US assets to consider this part of the southern ocean was in the possession of Malaysian authorities 4 days before they were made public.

London based Inmarsat today confirmed to Channel 4 News that they sent the information to Malaysian authorities on Tuesday 10th March. But it was only on March 15th that Malaysia’s prime minister announced the search may be widened to include the new search corridors.

Channel 4 News understands that it was only after British and American security services and flight investigation teams put pressure on the Malaysian government that the search area was shifted.

It is very unlikely that an earlier redeployment of the search effort would have helped anyone who was on board the plane if it did indeed ditch in the southern ocean. But it will have caused huge diplomatic upset in the region where the navies of China, Vietnam, Thailand and the US were searching in the wrong place for several days.

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