Piece of board found by one of seven relatives who flew to Indian Ocean island to raise awareness of need to hand in debris thought to be from plane 
 
 A Chinese man who travelled to Madagascar in search of answers to the disappearance of his mother on Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has found a possible piece of debris from the plane during a search of the country’s beaches. 
 
 Jiang Hui, 44, is one of seven relatives who flew to the Indian Ocean island on Saturday to raise awareness of the debris that has been washing up on its beaches in ever-increasing amounts and conduct preliminary searches. 
 
 ​The man on a solo mission to find ​the wreckage o​f​ flight MH370 Read more 
 
 He found a small white and sand-coloured piece of board in a rocky cove at the end of Riake beach on north-eastern Île Sainte-Marie, where a significant amount of the debris thought to be from MH370 has already been discovered. “I felt excited but at the same time it was saddening,” he said. “It is a small piece and will not really be able to show what happened to the plane but I hope so much that the authorities of Malaysia, China and Australia will try to find more so they can find out.” 
 
 The piece has been handed to an official from the Malaysian investigation, said Blaine Gibson, a Seattle lawyer who has found 16 pieces of debris thought to be from the plane in Mozambique and Madagascar. 
 
 Following Jiang’s discovery, Gibson said he had stumbled upon a larger object in the same area. He said both pieces appeared to be from the cabin of a large airliner. 
 
 “[The find] just shows how important it is that these beaches are checked daily, and that local people keep their eyes open,” Gibson said. “It also shows how important this visit by the families is for raising awareness.” 
 
 
 
 Jiang lost his 73-year-old mother, Jiang Cuiyun, on the flight and has been prominent in the relatives’ campaign amid a lack of openness – and seemingly of action – from the Malaysian-led official inquiry. 
 
 Relatives of those who were on MH370, which disappeared while flying to Beijing on 8 March 2014, have criticised the Malaysian investigation for failing to collect debris found on Madagascar six months ago. Malaysia is now sending investigators to Madagascar but insists the timing is a coincidence. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Relatives of some of the passengers on MH370 who are searching for debris from the plane in Madagascar. Photograph: Stringer/Reuters 
 
 Jiang spoke briefly at a press conference held in the capital, Antananarivo, on Sunday as the relatives began their search. “In order to look for my mum, I have come here but my English is poor,” he said, before switching to Chinese to appeal for help in finding more evidence of the plane. 
 
 Grace Nathan, spokeswoman for the Voice370 campaign group, said the discovery of debris potentially from the plane brought “mixed feelings” for the whole group. 
 
 What happened to MH370? Malaysia Airlines flight 370, flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 227 passengers and 12 crew, vanished on 8 March 2014. There was no trace of the plane until a flaperon washed up on Réunion in the Indian Ocean in 2015. Several pieces of debris found around east and south Africa have since been assessed to be from the missing aircraft. A seabed search led by Australia, backed by Malaysia and China, is due to continue until early 2017. Theories – all unproven – have ranged from crew involvement or hijacking to onboard fire or catastrophic technical failure. 
 
 “First time a piece was found by one of us. Such mixed feelings now for all of us – pain, sadness, confusion, hope,” she wrote on a Facebook page where the relatives share updates with others bereaved by the incident. 
 
 It is thought unlikely the small fragment found by Jiang would ever be definitively linked to MH370, but Gibson said it was washed up on the same part of the beach where he found items including a seat back – complete with coat hook and frame for an in-flight television screen. 
 
 The find comes after the families divided into three groups to visit the stretches of coastline where current and wind analysis has predicted most debris could wash up. 
 
 In Nosy Be, Tamatave and Île Sainte-Marie, they have met local officials, tourism and fishery associations as well as journalists to raise awareness about the need to pick up and hand in potential debris. 
 
 One local boat owner lent his vessel for free to Nathan and her father so they could search offshore islands. Homemade fliers she printed showing what the debris looked like and how it should be preserved have run out and had to be reprinted. 
 
 Ghislain Wattrelos, a French national who lost his wife and two teenage children, said the relatives had been moved by the outpouring of public sympathy. 
 
 “It was the right move to come,” he said. “We have had a very nice response from everyone, we have been very well-received.” ||||| Image copyright Blaine Alan Gibson Image caption This piece of possible debris was found in Madagascar in June 
 
 I've not seen anything like it before. 
 
 An aircraft accident investigation driven not by experts, but by a group of the bereaved and an amateur American sleuth who hankers for the truth. 
 
 As I write, eight people who lost loved ones on board missing Malaysian flight MH370, together with self-funded traveller and mystery solver Blaine Alan Gibson, are trawling remote beaches in Madagascar, finding what might be parts of the plane. 
 
 They've been there for a week and have come across a number of possible pieces so far. 
 
 Grace Subathirai Nathan's mother vanished without trace in March 2014. She was one of the 239 people aboard the routine Malaysian flight. 
 
 Grace has posted these photos on her Facebook page: 
 
 Image copyright Grace Subathirai Nathan/Facebook 
 
 "NEW Piece of potential mh370 DEBRIS found on Riake Beach, Isle St Marie by one of our next of kin Jiang Hui two hours ago! First time a piece was found by one of us. Such mixed feelings now for all of us - pain, sadness, confusion, hope," she writes. 
 
 One of those pieces, or a combination of them, could eventually hold the key to unlock this mystery. So far it's the debris washed ashore and found by the public, not the huge underwater sea search, that has given us the best idea of what may have happened on board. 
 
 Parts of the wing flap system found on beaches have allowed investigators to surmise that the aircraft came down quickly and out of control, rather than in a gentle controlled glide. 
 
 When I spoke to Grace on the phone she told me about their incredible, unique trip. 
 
 "Only one local person had even heard of MH370. Some had probably never seen an airliner, but they all understood the pain of loss," she said. 
 
 They want locals to become their eyes and ears, looking out for possible plane debris long after the families have returned home. 
 
 "We've had brochures printed in English, French and Malagasy. It's a step-by-step guide to what to do. How to handle debris if you find out. To photograph it, and how to get it to the right people. 
 
 "It's laminated so fishermen can have it on board without it getting wet. The local tourist board also helped us make a video in Malagasy that we can show people. Some might not be able to read". 
 
 Image caption Grace Subathirai Nathan is one of those campaigning to make sure their relatives are not forgotten 
 
 They've also recruited the local mayor, who will look after pieces in his office until they can be shipped to experts in Malaysia. 
 
 For months now, the families have been questioning why it's down to them, rather than Malaysian officials, to co-ordinate the beach search around the world. 
 
 Grace is in Madagascar with a group of relatives from Malaysia, China and France. None of them knew each other before the tragedy. Now they've formed a team that's determined to keep the hunt for clues alive. 
 
 The sea search is being wound up soon, so in a couple of months, they'll be the only people looking. The bits they are finding still need to be analysed by experts to see if they are from the missing airliner. 
 
 They're washing up thousands of miles from where investigators are convinced the aircraft came down, yet it makes sense when you know how the oceans work. 
 
 After months of experiments, scientists have shown that the currents and winds would have carried small, floating parts across the Indian Ocean, to the coasts of South Africa, Tanzania, Madagascar, Mozambique and Reunion Island. 
 
 The very places bits are turning up. 
 
 It's likely that thousands of clues are lying around undiscovered, because no one is looking for them. Some might be personal effects from passengers. Others might hold small clues to what happened. If it's fire damaged for example, that could point to an accident, not a deliberate act. 
 
 It's one the world's biggest mysteries, yet it's coming down to the loved ones, the bereaved, and an American who craves the truth, to keep this search alive. ||||| 1 of 12. Lieutenant Clayton Hunt and Lieutenant (junior grade) Nicholas Horton, naval aviators assigned to Patrol Squadron (VP) 16, pilot a P-8A Poseidon during a mission to assist in search and rescue operations for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in this March 24, 2014 handout photo. 
 
 PERTH (Reuters) - An air search of the remote southern Indian Ocean resumed on Friday, seeking to confirm if hundreds of objects spotted by satellites are debris from a Malaysian jetliner presumed to have crashed almost three weeks ago with the loss of all on board. 
 
 A Chinese Ilyushin IL-76 took off from Perth before dawn, heading 2,500 km (1,550 miles) southwest into the search area where high winds and icy weather had halted flights on Thursday. 
 
 The disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines jet, which vanished from civilian radar screens less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur on a routine flight to Beijing on March 8, has gripped the world and baffled investigators. 
 
 Officials believe someone on board Flight MH370 may have shut off the plane's communications systems before flying it thousands of miles off course where it crashed into the ocean in one of the most isolated and foreboding regions on the planet. 
 
 Theories range from a hijacking to sabotage or a possible suicide by one of the pilots, but investigators have not ruled out technical problems. 
 
 The search zone centers on the latest sightings of possible wreckage that were captured by Thai and Japanese satellites in roughly the same frigid expanse of sea as earlier images reported by France, Australia and China. 
 
 "We detected floating objects, perhaps more than 300," Anond Snidvongs, the head of Thailand's space technology development agency, told Reuters. "We have never said that the pieces are part of MH370 but have so far identified them only as floating objects." 
 
 The U.S. Navy said it was sending a second P8 Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft to help in the search for the missing Boeing 777. 
 
 "It's critical to continue searching for debris so we can reverse-forecast the wind, current and sea state since March 8th to recreate the position where MH370 possibly went into the water," said Commander Tom Moneymaker, a U.S. 7th Fleet oceanographer. 
 
 The United States has also sent a device that can be towed behind a ship to pick up faint pings from the plane's black box voice and data recorders, but time is running out. 
 
 "We've got to get this initial position right prior to deploying the Towed Pinger Locator since the MH370's black box has a limited battery life and we can't afford to lose time searching in the wrong area," Moneymaker said. 
 
 NEW IMAGES 
 
 The Australian Maritime Safety Authority, which is coordinating the effort, said it would give details later on the search after flights were halted on Thursday. 
 
 "It's the nature of search and rescue. It's a fickle beast," Flying Officer Peter Moore, the captain of an Australian AP-3C Orion, told Reuters aboard the plane after it turned around 1,000 km (600 miles) from the search zone. 
 
 "This is incredibly important to us. The reality is we have 239 people whose families want some information and closure." 
 
 The objects spotted by the Thai satellite on Monday were between 2 meters (6.5 ft) and 16 meters (52 ft) in size and were in an area around 2,700 km (1,680 miles) southwest of Perth, Snidvongs said. 
 
 The prolonged and so far fruitless search and investigation have taken a toll, with dozens of distraught relatives of 150 Chinese passengers clashing with police and accusing Malaysia of "delays and deception". 
 
 China has repeatedly voiced its frustration with the efforts of Malaysia to find the plane. China's special envoy to Malaysia said on Thursday that Beijing was doing its best to push the Southeast Asian nation to coordinate the international search effort, state news agency Xinhua said. 
 
 Chinese insurance companies have started paying compensation to the families of passengers, Xinhua reported separately. 
 
 A U.S.-based law firm has said it expects to represent families of more than half of the passengers in a lawsuit against the carrier and Boeing, alleging the plane had crashed due to mechanical failure. 
 
 (Additional reporting by Suilee Wee in Beijing, Niluksi Koswanage in Kuala Lumpur, Stanley White in Tokyo and Amy Sawitta Lefevre in Bangkok; Writing by Lincoln Feast and Alex Richardson; Editing by Dean Yates) ||||| Story highlights Australian Prime Minister: "If this mystery is solvable, we will solve it" 
 
 Search for plane resumes; 10 aircraft and 10 boats involved 
 
 No confirmed plane debris sightings, though four interesting orange objects are seen 
 
 Australian crew calls new objects one of their "most promising leads" 
 
 New hope, more frustration. 
 
 As the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 turned up fresh potential clues, dozens of anguished Chinese relatives on Sunday demanded that Malaysia provide them with evidence on the fate of their loved ones aboard the missing Boeing 777. 
 
 Ideal weather conditions gave one Australian aircraft crew the opportunity to detect many objects in the water west of Perth. 
 
 It spotted four orange items of interest, took photos and sent the coordinates, but Flight Lt. Russell Adams said the crew couldn't determine whether the objects were from the airliner, which officials believe went down in the southern Indian Ocean. 
 
 The items were more than 2 meters (6.5 feet) long, he said. 
 
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 Photos: The search for MH370 Photos: The search for MH370 Two years after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went missing, a relative of one of the passengers burns incense in Beijing on March 8, 2016. Flight 370 vanished on March 8, 2014, as it flew from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing. There were 239 people on board. Hide Caption 1 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 On July 29, police carry a piece of debris on Reunion Island, a French territory in the Indian Ocean. A week later, authorities confirmed that the debris was from the missing flight. Hide Caption 2 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Staff members with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau examine a piece of aircraft debris at their laboratory in Canberra, Australia, on July 20. The flap was found in June by residents on Pemba Island off the coast of Tanzania, and officials had said it was highly likely to have come from Flight 370. Experts at the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which is heading up the search for the plane, confirmed that the part was indeed from the missing aircraft. Hide Caption 3 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 In late February, American tourist Blaine Gibson found a piece of plane debris off Mozambique, a discovery that renewed hope of solving the mystery of the missing flight. The piece measured 35 inches by 22 inches. A U.S. official said it was likely the wreckage came from a Boeing 777, which MH370 was. Hide Caption 4 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Relatives of the flight's passengers console each other outside the Malaysia Airlines office in Subang, Malaysia, on February 12, 2015. Protesters had demanded that the airline withdraw the statement that all 239 people aboard the plane were dead. Hide Caption 5 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A police officer watches a couple cry outside the airline's office building in Beijing after officials refused to meet with them on June 11, 2014. The couple's son was on the plane. Hide Caption 6 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Members of the media scramble to speak with Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, director general of Malaysia's Civil Aviation Department, at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on May 27, 2014. Data from communications between satellites and the missing flight was released the day before, more than two months after relatives of passengers said they requested it be made public. Hide Caption 7 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Operators aboard the Australian ship Ocean Shield move Bluefin-21, the U.S. Navy's autonomous underwater vehicle, into position to search for the jet on April 14, 2014. Hide Caption 8 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A member of the Royal New Zealand Air Force looks out of a window while searching for debris off the coast of western Australia on April 13, 2014. Hide Caption 9 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 The HMS Echo, a vessel with the British Roya; Navy, moves through the waters of the southern Indian Ocean on April 12, 2014. Hide Caption 10 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orion, on a mission to drop sonar buoys to assist in the search, flies past the Australian vessel Ocean Shield on April 9, 2014. Hide Caption 11 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A relative of a missing passenger cries at a vigil in Beijing on April 8, 2014. Hide Caption 12 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Australian Defense Force divers scan the water for debris in the southern Indian Ocean on April 7, 2014. Hide Caption 13 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A towed pinger locator is readied to be deployed off the deck of the Australian vessel Ocean Shield on April 7, 2014. Hide Caption 14 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A member of the Royal New Zealand Air Force looks at a flare in the Indian Ocean during search operations on April 4, 2014. Hide Caption 15 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 On March 30, 2014, a woman in Kuala Lumpur prepares for an event in honor of those aboard Flight 370. Hide Caption 16 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 The sole representative for the families of Flight 370 passengers leaves a conference at a Beijing hotel on March 28, 2014, after other relatives left en masse to protest the Malaysian government's response to their questions. Hide Caption 17 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A member of the Royal Australian Air Force is silhouetted against the southern Indian Ocean during the search for the missing jet on March 27, 2014. Hide Caption 18 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Flight Lt. Jayson Nichols looks at a map aboard a Royal Australian Air Force aircraft during a search on March 27, 2014. Hide Caption 19 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 People in Kuala Lumpur light candles during a ceremony held for the missing flight's passengers on March 27, 2014. Hide Caption 20 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, center, delivers a statement about the flight on March 24, 2014. Razak's announcement came after the airline sent a text message to relatives saying it "deeply regrets that we have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH 370 has been lost and that none of those onboard survived." Hide Caption 21 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Grieving relatives of missing passengers leave a hotel in Beijing on March 24, 2014. Hide Caption 22 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A passenger views a weather map in the departures terminal of Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 22, 2014. Hide Caption 23 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A Chinese satellite captured this image, released on March 22, 2014, of a floating object in the Indian Ocean, according to China's State Administration of Science. It was a possible lead in the search for the missing plane. Surveillance planes were looking for two objects spotted by satellite imagery in remote, treacherous waters more than 1,400 miles from the west coast of Australia. Hide Caption 24 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Satellite imagery provided by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority on March 20, 2014, showed debris in the southern Indian Ocean that could have been from Flight 370. The announcement by Australian officials raised hopes of a breakthrough in the frustrating search. Hide Caption 25 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Another satellite shot provided by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority shows possible debris from the flight. Hide Caption 26 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A distraught relative of a missing passenger breaks down while talking to reporters at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 19, 2014. Hide Caption 27 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 On March 18, 2014, a relative of a missing passenger tells reporters in Beijing about a hunger strike to protest authorities' handling of information about the missing jet. Hide Caption 28 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 U.S. Navy crew members assist in search-and-rescue operations in the Indian Ocean on March 16, 2014. Hide Caption 29 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Members of the Chinese navy continue search operations on March 13, 2014. After starting in the sea between Malaysia and Vietnam, the plane's last confirmed location, search efforts expanded west into the Indian Ocean. Hide Caption 30 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A Vietnamese military official looks out an aircraft window during search operations March 13, 2014. Hide Caption 31 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Malaysian air force members look for debris near Kuala Lumpur on March 13, 2014. Hide Caption 32 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Relatives of missing passengers wait for the latest news at a hotel in Beijing on March 12, 2014. Hide Caption 33 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A member of the Vietnamese air force checks a map while searching for the missing plane on March 11, 2014. Hide Caption 34 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A Vietnamese air force plane found traces of oil that authorities had suspected to be from the missing Malaysia Airlines plane, the Vietnamese government online newspaper reported on March 8, 2014. However, a sample from the slick showed it was bunker oil, typically used to power large cargo ships, Malaysia's state news agency, Bernama, reported on March 10, 2014. Hide Caption 35 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A U.S. Navy Seahawk helicopter lands aboard the USS Pinckney to change crews on March 9, 2014, before returning to search for the missing plane in the Gulf of Thailand. Hide Caption 36 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Buddhist monks at Kuala Lumpur International Airport offer a special prayer for the missing passengers on March 9, 2014. Hide Caption 37 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Members of a Chinese emergency response team board a rescue vessel at the port of Sanya in China's Hainan province on March 9, 2014. Hide Caption 38 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 The rescue vessel sets out from Sanya in the South China Sea on March 9, 2014. Hide Caption 39 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, center, arrives to meet family members of missing passengers at the reception center at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 8, 2014. Hide Caption 40 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A relative of two missing passengers reacts at their home in Kuala Lumpur on March 8, 2014. Hide Caption 41 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Chinese police at the Beijing airport stand beside the arrival board showing delayed Flight 370 in red on March 8, 2014. Hide Caption 42 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Malaysia Airlines Group CEO Ahmad Juahari Yahya, front, speaks during a news conference at a hotel in Sepang on March 8, 2014. "We deeply regret that we have lost all contacts" with the jet, he said. Hide Caption 43 of 43 
 
 Authorities will analyze the images and then decide whether to send a ship to the debris location. 
 
 Adams called the discovery of the four objects one of the "most promising leads" searchers have come across. 
 
 The search resumed Monday, with 10 aircraft and 10 boats set to look for signs of the missing plane. 
 
 "We are searching a vast area of ocean, and we are working on quite limited information. Nevertheless, the best brains in the world are applying themselves to this task. ... If this mystery is solvable, we will solve it," Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott told reporters Monday. 
 
 Speaking from the Royal Australian Air Force base where search teams have been headquartered, Abbott said he wouldn't set a time frame for how long the hunt for the missing plane could take. 
 
 "We can keep searching for quite some time to come. We will keep searching for quite some time to come. ... The intensity of our search and the magnitude of our operations is increasing, not decreasing," he said. 
 
 Search efforts Sunday ended with no confirmed sightings of debris from the plane, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said. 
 
 Objects picked up by ships on Saturday turned out to be fishing equipment and other items, officials said. 
 
 'We want truth' 
 
 The family members arrived in Kuala Lumpur and held a news conference at their hotel, imploring officials to be more transparent. 
 
 "We want evidence, we want truth and we want our family," said Jiang Hui, the families' designated representative. The crowd chanted the same words. 
 
 "We are here to call for the following three things," he said. "First, the Malaysian side should provide us with timely and comprehensive evidence and answer the families' questions." 
 
 He also asked Malaysia to apologize for releasing confusing information and for announcing on March 24 that the plane had crashed even though there was no "direct evidence." 
 
 Relatives wore white T-Shirts with the words " Pray for MH370 ... return home safely." Some wept. 
 
 "We are here struck with sadness and urgency," Jiang said. "The meetings recently in China were not fruitful with (Malaysia Airlines) officials." 
 
 Mixed messages 
 
 Family members have accused Malaysian officials of withholding information since the plane vanished more than three weeks ago. 
 
 Of the 239 people aboard the doomed jetliner, 154 were Chinese. 
 
 Last week, relatives were told everyone aboard had died. But Hishammuddin Hussein, Malaysia's acting transportation minister, told reporters Saturday he had not closed the door on the hope that there could be survivors. 
 
 Frustrating search 
 
 Beijing has publicly slammed Malaysia's efforts to find the Boeing 777, which went missing March 8 on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. 
 
 And as the frustrating three-week search resumed Monday, China was among the countries scouring the choppy waters of the southern Indian Ocean for signs of the plane. 
 
 Ten aircraft were set to fly over the search area about 1,150 miles (1,850 kilometers) west of Perth, Australian officials said. 
 
 Ten ships were also involved in the search, including the Australian navy ship Ocean Shield, which was fitted with a "black box" detector and an autonomous underwater vehicle. 
 
 On Saturday, crew members aboard a Chinese plane dropped buoys to mark three suspected debris sites, China's state-run CCTV reported. It later said Sunday an orange "suspicious object" spotted by a Chinese plane Saturday turned out to be a dead jellyfish. 
 
 Amid the confusion, Malaysia said it has done its best with what it has. 
 
 "History will judge us as a country that has been very responsible," Hishammuddin said. 
 
 Relatives said they hope to meet the transport minister in Kuala Lumpur. They also asked Malaysia to plan meetings with the various companies involved, including Boeing, the plane's manufacturer. 
 
 Race against time 
 
 Experts said the clock is ticking. 
 
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 The batteries on the flight data recorder, commonly referred to as the black box, are designed to last about 30 days. The plane disappeared March 8 -- 22 days ago. 
 
 "We certainly have our challenges in front of us," said Cmdr. Mark Matthews of the U.S. Navy. 
 
 "What we're trying to find is an acoustic emission from one of the pingers on the flight data recorder (and) the cockpit voice recorder. Typically these last, the batteries last about 30 days, usually they last a little bit longer, and that's what we're trying to find. But what is critical is that the teams that are out there searching for the surface debris, they get good position data on that and they feed it back to the oceanographers, to help us determine a probable point of impact for where the aircraft went in." 
 
 An American pinger locator and undersea search equipment were loaded onto the Ocean Shield. The ship is set to depart by Monday morning, and will take up to three days to reach the search area. 
 
 U.S. Navy Cmdr. William Marks told CNN's "State of the Union" that his team really needs a conclusive piece of debris to narrow down the search area, due to the range of the pinger locator. 
 
 "We have to be careful not to send it in the wrong place, but we also wanted to get it out there as close as we can to what we believe is the right place," he told CNN's Candy Crowley. 
 
 He said if the batteries on the recorders aboard the missing plane run out, the search would require side-scan sonar, one of which has been loaded on a search ship. 
 
 "But like I said, without good visual confirmation of debris, which we really have not had yet, it is tough to even go in the general direction," he said. 
 
 'They're still alive' 
 
 In Beijing on Saturday, some of the relatives of the missing vented their anguish in the streets. 
 
 "They're all still alive, my son and everyone on board!" yelled Wen Wancheng, 63, whose only son was among the passengers. "The plane is still there, too! They're hiding it." 
 
 He held aloft a banner that read: "Son, Mom and Dad's hearts are torn to pieces. Come home soon!" 
 
 Relatives implored Hishammuddin to redouble efforts to find the plane. 
 
 "What they want is a commitment on our part to continue the search, and that I have given," Hishammuddin said. "For me, as the minister responsible, this is the hardest part of my life, at the moment," he told reporters. 
 
 "Miracles do happen, remote or otherwise, and that is the hope that the families want me to convey -- not only to the Malaysian government, MAS (Malaysia Airlines), but also to the world at large," he said. 
 
 Sea objects 
 
 The latest data analysis shows Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 ended up in the southern Indian Ocean. 
 
 But officials have offered different assessments of exactly where it could have gone down. 
 
 Investigators shifted the search area Friday after concluding that the plane had been traveling faster and burning fuel faster than they previously had thought. 
 
 The new search area is closer to Australia's coast, so it takes less time to reach, meaning more area can be searched. It's also marked by calmer waters. ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. 
 
 / Updated By Tom Costello and Alastair Jamieson 
 
 An object that could be debris from a Boeing 777 has been found off Mozambique and is being examined by investigators searching for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, sources told NBC News. 
 
 Early photographic analysis of the object suggests it could have come from the doomed jet, which vanished almost exactly two years ago. 
 
 It was found on a sandbank in the Mozambique Channel — the body of water between Mozambique in eastern Africa and Madagascar — and in the same corner of the southern Indian Ocean where the only confirmed piece of debris, a flaperon, was found last July. 
 
 Investigators in Malaysia, Australia and the United States have seen photographs of the latest object, and sources say there is a good chance it comes from a Boeing 777. 
 
 Possible debris from missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 has been found off Mozambique on a sandbank in the Mozambique Channel — the body of water between Mozambique in eastern Africa and Madagascar. NBC News 
 
 The object has the words "NO STEP" on it and could be from the plane's horizontal stabilizer — the wing-like parts attached to the tail, sources say. It was discovered by an American who has been blogging about the search for MH370. 
 
 Australia's Joint Agency Coordination Center said it was aware of the discovery and arranging for a thorough examination. Malaysia Airlines said it was "too speculative at this point" to comment. 
 
 Possible debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has been found off Mozambique, and early photographic analysis suggests it could have come from the doomed jet, which vanished almost exactly two years ago. NBC News 
 
 Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said on Twitter that there was a "high possibility debris found in Mozambique belongs to" a Boeing 777, but he said that was "yet to be confirmed and verified." 
 
 Darren Chester, Australia's minister for infrastructure and transport, said in a statement Thursday that the location was consistent with drift modeling related to the search. The discovery "reaffirms the search area for MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean," he said. 
 
 Boeing engineers are looking at the photos, according to sources. The company has declined to comment. 
 
 The development comes days ahead of the second anniversary of the jet's disappearance en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board. 
 
 Possible Boeing 777 parts found that could be from MH370. 
 
 No trace has been found of Flight MH370 except for the single barnacle-encrusted flaperon that washed up on the eastern shore of Reunion, east of Madagascar, last July. French aviation experts verified it as part of aircraft 9M-MRO after more than a month of forensic analysis at a laboratory near Toulouse. 
 
 There have been false hopes over the course of the investigation: In January, aviation officials ruled that two objects recovered from Malaysia's east coast were not from the missing airliner. 
 
 Possible debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has been found off Mozambique and is being examined by investigators. The object has the words 'NO STEP' on it and could be from the plane's horizontal stabilizer — the wing-like parts attached to the tail, sources say. NBC News 
 
 One of them, a 6-foot-long metal item found in the eastern state of Terengganu, was examined by officials from the Transport Ministry, the Civil Aviation Department and Malaysia Airlines. 
 
 However, the sonar search operation has turned up a 19th-century shipwreck. 
 
 Almost three-quarters of an internationally set 46,000-square-mile search zone has been covered so far in the hunt for the missing airliner — an area of ocean floor larger than the state of South Carolina. 
 
 The operation is due to be completed by the middle of this year. The Joint Agency Coordination Center says that if no "credible new information" about the jet's location emerges, the search will end. 
 
 The Cry for Truth, an association of families of the plane's passengers and crew, objected to plans to end the search, saying in a strongly worded statement that its members feared that organizers were trying to run out the clock. 
 
 "With no word from anyone about the investigations over the last year, we wonder if the authorities hope that if they stop updating us we will eventually stop asking and this will lead to an uneventful end to any serious ongoing inquiry," the group said. 
 
 "It appears that the concerned parties — Malaysia, Australia and China — are preparing to bring the curtains down on the search for MH370," the statement said. "We believe that this would be truly unfortunate. 
 
 "The organization announced a remembrance program scheduled for Sunday in Publika Square in Kuala Lumpur.
– A Pennsylvania-sized patch of the Indian Ocean has been combed in a $150 million search effort for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370—and that search is now coming to a close with the mystery still unsolved. The last boat still looking for the plane left the Australian port of Fremantle on Tuesday to scan areas that might have been missed during the initial search because of sonar issues or too-deep water, reports Perth Now. If no fresh evidence or trace of the plane has been found once its month-long mission wraps up, no future search missions will likely follow, reports NBC News. Though officials "remain hopeful," Australia's transport minister says that "we have to prepare ourselves for the prospect" that MH370, which disappeared in March 2014, will not be found, per the BBC. Relatives of MH370's 239 victims plan to continue hunting for evidence of what happened to their loved ones, however. Frustrated by a lack of activity from Malaysian officials, family members from Malaysia, China, and France have banded together to search for debris, including on remote beaches in Madagascar, where Jiang Hui, 44, of China says he recently found a possible plane part. "I felt excited but at the same time it was saddening," he tells the Guardian. "It is a small piece and will not really be able to show what happened to the plane, but I hope so much that the authorities … will try to find more." Relatives have also handed out brochures in three languages that explain to locals what to do if plane parts are found, per the BBC. (Here's what debris has revealed so far.)