Hunt for missing jet is hampered by an ocean strewn with trash

By Barbara Demick, LA Times
8:23 AM PDT, March 31, 2014

BEIJING — The search and rescue teams working off the west coast of Australia seeking the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 discovered what oceanographers have been warning: Even the most far-flung stretches of ocean are full of garbage.

For the first time since the search focused on the southern Indian Ocean 10 days ago, the skies were clear enough and the waves calm, allowing ships to retrieve the "suspicious items" spotted by planes and on satellite imagery.

But examined on board, none of it proved to be debris from the missing plane, just the ordinary garbage swirling around in the ocean.

"A number of objects were retrieved by HMAS Success and Haixun 01 yesterday," reported the Australian Maritime Safety Authority in a news release Sunday. "The objects have been described as fishing equipment and other flotsam."

(More here.)