搜索飞机在中国卫星图像显示漂浮物海域未发现失联班机残骸

Malaysia and Vietnam say there is no sign of a missing Malaysian airliner in the area where Chinese satellite images showed potential debris floating in the water.

The two countries sent Search planes over the area in the South China Sea on Thursday, but officials said they did not find anything.

China released the images Wednesday, with state media saying they showed three fairly large objects near the plane's original flight path toward Beijing.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that U.S. investigators suspect the Malaysia Airlines plane remained in the air for four hours after passing its last known location over the Gulf of Thailand.

The report said the belief is based on data that is automatically sent by the plane's engines to the ground, and suggests the aircraft could have flown for an additional 4,000 kilometers.

Ships and aircraft from 12 countries are involved in a sprawling search that covers 93,000 square kilometers in the waters on both sides of Malaysia. An extra four hours in the air would put the plane far outside the search area, reaching potentially into areas of the Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean or Pacific Ocean.马来西亚和越南说，中国卫星图像显示了可能是马航失联班机残骸的漂浮物，但在该水域没有发现存在班机残骸的任何迹象。

马来西亚和越南星期四派飞机在南中国海有关水域上空搜索，但没有发现任何东西。

马来西亚民航局局长拉赫曼说，没有发现有关失联班机的任何线索。

中国星期三公布了有关卫星图像，同时中国国家媒体说，卫星图像显示在这架飞机原定的飞往北京的航线附近有三个相当大的漂浮物。

与此同时，华尔街日报星期四报道说，美国调查人员怀疑这架马航班机在飞过位于泰国湾的最后确定位置后，又在空中停留了四小时。

华尔街日报说，做出这一判断的根据是失联班机引擎向地面自动发送的信号，并说这架班机可能又飞了4千公里。

来自12个国家的船只和飞机在马来西亚周边海域进行搜索，搜索范围达9万3千平方公里。如果失联班机又飞了四小时，就大大超出了目前的搜索范围，可能进入了阿拉伯海、印度洋或太平洋上空。