Malaysian jet search enters third week

(Vatican Radio) Several planes spent another day flying from Australia to search the southern Indian Ocean, where recent satellite images have appeared to show some sort of debris floating.

"We've been throwing everything we've got at that area", Australia's prime minister, Tony Abbott, said on Friday. But he warned the debris might be unrelated. He continued, "It could just be a container that's fallen off a ship. We just don't know."

Last week Malaysia's government urged nations in the region to re-examine any radar data they might have from the night the plane vanished.

Malaysia's transport minister said the priority is to narrow down the search area. "This is going to be a long haul. I think we have to trench down on this”, he said.

Transport Minister Hishamuddin Hussein, who has asked the United States to provide further assets, including what the U.S. Department of Defense described as undersea surveillance equipment.

Washington replied that it would assess "the availability and utility" of that military technology.

Listen to the report by Alastair Wanklyn: