Malaysia's civil aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said planes had searched the location, adding: "There is nothing. We went there, there is nothing."
Adding to the mystery, The Wall Street Journal has reported that US investigators suspect the plane flew on for four hours once it lost contact with air traffic controllers, based on data from the plane's engines that are automatically downloaded and transmitted to the ground as part of routine maintenance programmes.
The report, based on two anonymous sources, raises questions as to why the Boeing 777 would have been flying without passive or active contact with the ground, and if anyone would have been in control during that time. US counter-terrorism officials are considering whether a pilot or someone else on board intentionally disabled the jetliner's transponders to avoid detection and divert it, the report said.
US counter-terrorism officials are concerned as to why Malaysian Airlines flight 370 remained airborne for four hours after it vanished from radar based on data transmitted from its engines. Pictured are crew members of a Chinese Air Force aircraft
The plane was heading north-east over the Gulf of Thailand toward Vietnam when vanished. The last message from the cockpit of the missing flight was routine. "All right, good night," was the sign-off transmitted to air traffic controllers.
Shortly after that it fell off commercial radar, but military authorities say it might have turned west and flown into the northern stretches of the Strait of Malacca based on unconfirmed traces seen on its air defence radar.
If the Wall Street Journal report is confirmed, the search area will have to significantly expand.
The Chinese satellite imagery showing possible debris was not far from where the last confirmed position of the plane was between Malaysia and Vietnam. The images and co-ordinates were posted on the website of China's State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence.
China's state Xinhua News Agency said the images from around 11am on Sunday appear to show "three suspected floating objects" of varying sizes in a 12-mile (20km) radius, the largest about 79ft by 72ft (24m by 22m) off the southern tip of Vietnam.
Li Jiaxiang, chief of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, said later China had yet to confirm any link between the suspected floating objects and the plane.
A handout photo released by the Indonesian Airforce on 12 March 2014 shows an airforce personnel during a search mission for a Malaysian Airlines aircraft on board of a military surveillance airplane over the Malacca straits
Malaysian authorities have come under fire for their handling of the search amid sometimes confusing and conflicting statements, including the time of the plane's disappearance. Officials had also said that five passengers had checked into the flight but did not board the plane, and their luggage had been removed, but later they said this was not true.
Malaysia's air force chief said yesterday that an unidentified object appears on military radar records about 200 miles (320km) northwest of Penang, Malaysia, and experts are analysing the data to determine whether the blip is the missing plane.
Authorities have not ruled out any possible cause, including mechanical failure, pilot error, sabotage and terrorism, and they are waiting to find any wreckage or debris to determine what went wrong.
Source: ES
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