Search for missing Malaysia plane suspended due to bad weather

A Chinese IL-76 aircraft returned to Perth in western Australia Thursday ahead of schedule due to bad weather after finding no suspicious objects in the southern Indian Ocean.

The aircraft took off to at 4:53 a.m. Thursday and began searching in the target sea area for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 at approximately 8 a.m. as planned.

It could not fly through the thick cloud even after lowering the flying altitude from 7,000 meters to 300 meters. The local visibility dropped nearly to zero due to heavy rain and dense clouds.

After the plane circled at a low altitude for more than 40 minutes, the Australian pilot aboard suggested to suspend the mission and reported the information to relevant department.

The Australian mission command center then ordered the aircraft to stop the search and return.

“In accordance with the task laid down by the Australian side, we arrived in the search area on schedule. But the weather condition in the search area is very bad. After we contacted with the Australian side, the Australian side ordered us to fly back to the base,” said Zhang Bing, the captain.

It got back to Perth International Airport at 11:30 a.m.

The search in the southern Indian Ocean was all suspended Thursday due to bad weather.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said through its Twitter feed that all aircraft were returning to Perth and all ships were leaving the search area.

Six military aircraft from four countries and five civil aircraft were scheduled to join the search Thursday along with four Chinese ships and one Australian vessel.

The search area is more than 2,500 km from Perth.

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) predicted stormy weather for the search zone on Thursday.

On Wednesday, the Malaysian government announced that analysts had found in satellite photos from France 122 unidentified objects floating in the southern Indian Ocean search area. AMSA confirmed on Thursday the positions of the objects were within the search zone.

The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 went missing in the early hours of March 8 with 239 people on board.

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